West End Hotel, Kilkee
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| The hotel circled to the left is the correct West End Hotel. The one in pink to the right is the later West End and Golf Links Hotel...the incorrect one. |
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| Robert French's photo taken in 19th century |
Erroneously, we had thought that a photo taken in the 19th century by Robert French titled 'West End Hotel, Kilkee' and now part of the Lawrence Collection in the National Library of Ireland was the very hotel that Charlotte and Arthur had stayed in. I could imagine the pair of them sitting underneath the lovely veranda on the terrace, sipping a good Irish cup of tea, enjoying a slice of tasty Irish tea brack, watching the world stroll by and admiring the waves rolling in across the wide sweep of the sandy bay before them. But they didn't!!!!
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| Residents under the veranda at the later West End and Golf Links Hotel. |
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| The West End and Golf Links Hotel today is now three houses. The couple in the photo are walking up on to Dunlickey Road which separates the two West End Hotels. The hotel Charlotte and Arthur stayed in is to the left of the blue buildings with the stone wall and metal fence...out of shot! |
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| The West End Golf Links Hotel is three private residences today. |
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| The West End and Golf Links Hotel with great sae views! Charlotte's and Arthur's West End Hotel is to the left out of camera shot! |
However, this was not the West End Hotel they stayed in. The lovely people at the Kilkee Heritage group explained our mistake. Their website is worth a visit! https://kilkee.clareheritage.org/
They explained to us that the hotel with the veranda was built later than the original West End Hotel where Charlotte and Arthur stayed. The later hotel was called the West End and Golf Links Hotel, as, at the time, the Kilkee Golf Club was over in that direction. The photo in the Lawrence Collection was taken about 60 years after the happy couple's honeymoon. The Heritage group explained the two West End Hotels have caused a bit of confusion over the years!
The hotel where Charlotte and Arthur stayed was literally next door just across the narrow lane of Dunlickey Road. It has less kerb-side appeal than the later hotel next door!
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| The yellow circle to the LEFT shows where Charlotte's and Arthur's West End Hotel Hotel was. |
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| The location of the two hotels today. The yellow circle is the correct West End Hotel, the pink circle the wrong one known as the West End and Golf Links Hotel. |
The West End Hotel was a hotel that Charlotte and Arthur could have 'carped' a lot at had they not been able to share a laugh about it instead, as seen in a letter written by Charlotte to Catherine Wooler on 18 July 1854:
Here at our Inn - splendidly designated 'the West End Hotel' - there is a good deal to carp at if one were in a carping humour - but we laugh instead of grumbling -for out of doors there is much indeed to compensate for any indoor shortcomings, so magnificent an ocean - so bold and grand a coast - I never yet saw...'
As Dr. Juliet Barker remarks of this letter in her wonderful biography The Brontes:
'It was a very long time since Charlotte had written anything so light-hearted as this careless valediction or, indeed, enjoyed the intimacy of shared humour.'
A heritage plaque has been placed on the correct West End Hotel run at the time of the honeymooner's visit by Mrs Shannon who also ran the adjoining post office. Alas, the heritage plaque is not a bright colour and so not as noticeable as the blue ones I am used to spotting back in England!
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| The old West End Hotel Kilkee,1998. The small one-storey building at the right was the old Kilkee post office. |
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| The West End Hotel now private homes. |
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The not very noticeable plaque on the building in Kilkee that was the West End Hotel. |
The views from the correct West End Hotel and the incorrect hotel are the same, both with super views across the bay and along The Strand of Kilkee.
In an article in the winter edition 1998 of The Old Limerick Journal, Thomas J Byrne writes of the Kilkee honeymoon trip. http://www.limerickcity.ie/media/charlotte%20bronte's%20kilkee.pdf
He gives some information on the West End Hotel:
Some further information on the West End Hotel is gleaned from some notes left by the Dowager Lady Charlotte O'Brien of Dromoland Castle (a regular visitor with her daughter, Grace, to Kilkee) who stayed at the hotel while Charlotte and her husband were on their honeymoon. Lady Charlotte, the mother of William Smith O'Brien, the patriot, was a discerning visitor and an able planner of journeys. She noted that for the relatively short journey from Dromoland to Kilkee, about 33 miles but over a very poor road, arrangements were made for a change of horses at Fanny O'Dea's. She also found out the circumstances and the prices charged at the better lodges and hotels at Kilkee, including the one she and her daughter decided to stay in - Mrs. Shannon's.
This entry of Lady O'Brien's is not dated but very clearly refers to 1854:
'Mrs. Shannon's boarding House. Terms. Board and Lodgings per week - £1 10s. Sitting room £1 extra. beds for persons not living in House - 2. each -per night. [This refers to bed-and-breakfast guests]. for persons partly boarding in it - 1..6 each - do [per night] board by day only - Dinner 2s. Break[fastl and Tea ls..6d each. No charge for servants'
Lady O'Brien added: 'Mary Frawley Kitchen Maid very good. Butler - Helper - smart boy.' These were the staff (as well as Mrs. Shannon's then unmarried daughters) at the West End Hotel when Charlotte Bronte stayed there.
T.J.Byrne, in The Old Limerick Journal winter edition 1998 also tells us that in July 1854, Kilkee was little more than a village of no more than 419 houses with only 314 occupied and a population of just over 1,869. The population doubled or even trebled in the summertime when visitors arrived. He writes:
Writing in 1867, the local curate, Fr. Sylvester Malone (in a letter to Gladstone) gives a very interesting account of the early development of Kilkee as a seaside resort:
'...To what precise event Kilkee owes its fame as a watering-place is not known. Perchance some adventurer in Ireland or from England, in quest of the grand and the sublime in nature, followed the romantic windings of the Atlantic shore, as each turn developed its varied charms, was smitten by its loveliness.
'There it was, a vision of beauty, with lovely bay and sweet white strand, contrasting pleasantly with the dark cliffs and swarthy land. The tourist returned to home and reported on Kilkee; its fame spread. Seekers of health visited it. Their expectations were fulfilled...'
Of Kilkee and Mrs Shannon, Charlotte's and Arthur's landlady he writes:
'By 1824 Limerick visitors were reported as annually expending a sum of £2,000 at Kilkee. Improved navigation on the Lower Shannon" between 1812 and 1822 greatly helped the advancement of Kilkee as a seaside resort. The rising population reflected the increasing popularity of Kilkee. In 1831 it had risen to 1,051 and consisted of 200 families living in 141 houses...In 1836 a Parochial School was opened for the education of the Protestant youth of the district and later a National School for Catholic boys and girls was opened by February 1845. A police barracks, a coastguard station and a post office were all established there by 1831.
Such was the town of Kilkee when Mrs. Margaret Shannon, recently widowed, came there with her four young daughters shortly before 1828 from Kilrush. Born Margaret McMahon (c.1790) in Kilrush, the daughter of John McMahon, described as a 'Merchant' of that town, she married Patrick Shannon of 'Kilforby' (modern Kilfearboy) at Kilrush towards the end of July 1814. In May 1818 she established a Board and Lodgings house at Kilrush 'for the receipt of Ladies and Gentlemen' and added that families 'going to Kilkee' would be accommodated on reasonable terms. Her husband seems to have died young, for by June 1812 Mrs. Shannon and her daughters had moved to Francis Street (modern Grattan St.) Kilkee. Here she opened her 'Kilkee Boarding House.'~She was also the post-mistress of Kilkee. This 'Boarding House' changed its name to the 'Kilkee Board and Lodging House' by June 1831, which changed again to 'Kilkee Hotel' in 1832,and like the two other hotels in the resort charged 25 shillings per week for full board in 1830.
A letter headed 'Bubbles From Bathing Places' in a Limerick newspaper in 1840 stated: 'Katty Fitzgerald and the widdy Shannon have commodious an' cleanly accommodation, no doubt. Moderate charges an' great civility ...' This hotel in Francis St. was later taken over by a Michael McNamara of Limerick as a public house. By May 1841 Mrs. Shannon had moved to the West End, Kilkee, where she had built a large house ... Here, with her daughters, she ran the 'West End Boarding House' which name she later, in 1844, changed to the 'West End - not to be confused with the later and larger building of the same name nearby. (the very one we confused it with!!!)
She continued as post-mistress until September 1854. This post-office stood on the Dunlickey Road adjoining the hotel. The drawing-rooms of her hotel were described as 'large and comfortable' and the bedrooms were 'spacious and airy'. The Limerick Chronicle was able to state: 'Mrs. Shannon's new Hotel, or West End Boarding House, as well from its accommodation as its beautiful situation on the cliffs over the enchanting bay, and commanding a view of the village promise every comfort to be desired at this delightful resort.'
By the summer of 1843 she had 'made great and extensive improvements'" and in 1844,1845, 1847 and 1848 built several additional rooms 'which with the entire Establishment are fitted up with the greatest elegance and comfort.' These new additions later formed the nucleus of her private residence after 1870, and is now called 'West End House'
In Charlotte Bronte's time it was part of the West End Hotel. Here Mrs Shannon supplied her guests with brandy, genuine malt whiskey, ale and Guinness's porter, 'all of the purest and best quality' and her terms were 'extremely moderate.'
Also of the best quality were her guests. It had an illustrious clientele, including in the summer of 1846 alone, Monsieur Le Baron De Falconceur,, Lord John Manners MP - the future Duke of Rutland, Lord S. Compton, Hon. Windham-Quin, Colonel Sir John Gaspard Le Marchant (commander of the troops at Limerick) and Lady La Marchant and family, Augustine Stafford O'Brien MP, and John Fraunceis Fitz-Gerald, Knight of Glin and many others.
In his article T. J. Byrne asks why Arthur may have opted to take Charlotte to Kilkee for a week of their honeymoon. He suggests Arthur may have been inspired by an earlier visit by his aunt Harriet and cousin James who had stayed at the West End Hotel in August 1846. He writes:
Why did Charlotte and her husband choose Kilkee for the greater part of their honeymoon?... I suggest the following. In August 1846 the names 'J. Bell, Esq. and Mrs. Bell' appear among a list of visitors to Mrs. Shannon's West End I suggest that these were Mrs. Harriet Lucinda Bell and her son, James Adamson Bell, then aged 20 years. We know that Mrs. Bell kindly nursed Charlotte back to health -'fatigue and excitement had nearly knocked me up - and my cough had become very bad' - and it seems more than likely that Arthur's aunt and cousin would have enthused about their earlier visit to Kilkee and would have recommended the very hotel where they had been only 8 years before.
It is highly unlikely that either Charlotte or her husband would have seen the following advertisement which appeared in the Limerick Chronicle, 5 July 1854 (Wed.)
WEST END HOTEL,
Kilkee
MRS. SHANNON begs leave to acquaint her friends and the Public, that she has fitted up her Hotel, in very superior Style for the accommodation of Tourists and Visitors to that beautifu1 watering place.
From the long Patronage Mrs. S. has received from her Friends, she expects a continuance of their support. Families requiring private apartments can be accommodated by application at Cruise's Royal Hotel, Limerick; or at the West End Hotel, Kilkee.
This hotel commands a magnificent view of the Cliffs, Bay, and surrounding scenery.
We absolutely had a wonderful trip to Kilkee in August 2022 and fell in love with it's sweeping bay, the pollock pools on the rocky shoreline and the mighty cliffs with the Atlantic rolling in. I would definitely return.
Charlotte and Arthur were also impressed with Kilkee - well at least with the outdoors- if not with the 'shortcomings' of the indoors they could have' carped at' in Mrs Shannon's West End Hotel.
We always say it's the place you visit not the hotel that matters! This was definitely the case for Charlotte and Arthur.
But for now, like Charlotte and Arthur, we would have to move on to the wonderful Kingdom of Kerry, south of Kilkee in beautiful County Clare. Tarbert, Tralee, Listowel and Killarney are next on the honeymooner's itinerary...and so on our's!
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