Before you plan a day here
The thing most people come to Moyasta for – a ride on the restored West Clare Railway from the old junction station – isn’t running. The heritage line and its little museum are closed to the public until further notice. Rumours that the operation had disbanded have been denied, but nothing has resumed either. So if the steam engine is the reason you’re driving out, check the West Clare Railway website first; on current information you’d arrive to a locked gate.
That leaves one attraction still worth the trip, and it’s a good one.
Moyasta Oysters
Moyasta Oysters has been growing shellfish in Poulnasherry Bay for over two decades, on a designated shellfish stretch of the Shannon Estuary. The farm runs a 90-minute tour that takes you behind the scenes from seed to market and finishes with a tasting. These are Pacific rock oysters, and they take roughly three years to reach the plate – slow-grown in cold, clean water, which is where the flavour comes from. The farm describes them as nutty, buttery and faintly peaty, and that peat note is the local signature.
Booking is required, through the Moyasta Oysters website. The tour is part of the Taste the Atlantic food trail, so it slots neatly into a wider west Clare seafood day. If you’d rather just eat than learn, Keane’s serves oysters from the same waters a short walk away.
The railway, and why it mattered
The West Clare Railway reached Moyasta in the late 1800s, and the hamlet became a junction: one line ran to Kilkee, another to Kilrush, and a single track carried on east toward Ennis and Milltown Malbay. The whole system closed on 31 January 1961. It’s the line Percy French mocked in ‘Are You Right There Michael?’ after being stranded by its timekeeping – the song did more for the railway’s memory than any timetable ever did.
Volunteers later restored the junction station house and about two kilometres of narrow-gauge track, and for years the Slieve Callan steam engine ran passengers along it. That’s the operation now paused. If it reopens, it’s a genuinely good short ride and the museum is worth twenty minutes for the story of how the line held remote coastal parishes together.
A little history
Moyasta was part of the Vandeleur estate, a name that became shorthand for the worst of the post-famine evictions in the Kilrush Union. The hamlet also has a darker entry in the record of the War of Independence: on 13 March 1921 the local magistrate, Tom Shannon, was shot dead in his own home, one of a run of killings recent research has tied to a covert campaign against prominent figures on both sides.
Getting there
Moyasta sits on the N67 with clear signage from Kilkee and Kilrush, and there’s free roadside parking by the old station. Bus Éireann route 350 between the two towns stops on the N67 a short walk away.
One caution worth taking seriously: in November 2023 a pedestrian was killed on the N67 at Moyasta, and in 2024 councillors flagged that black-spot safety signs on the road had gone missing or grown over. It’s a fast stretch of road with a crossing – take care getting out of the car.
Nearby
- Kilrush marina, with daily boat trips out to Scattery Island and its round tower
- Kilkee’s Blue Flag beach for swimming, five minutes west
- The Vandeleur Walled Gardens outside Kilrush
- The Loop Head Peninsula, cliffs and lighthouse, for a longer coastal loop
- Carrigaholt, a quiet harbour village on the way to Loop Head
The proposed Ennistymon-to-Moyasta greenway lost its funding in April 2025 when Transport Infrastructure Ireland declined it, and the council is still chasing alternatives. The shorter Kilrush-to-Kilkee section was expected to open in 2025 – worth checking locally, as a traffic-free walking and cycling route would change what you can do here on foot.