The town of Ennistymon dates from the late 1600s and developed around a crossing point on the rocky bed of River Inagh where the present bridge now stands. It is generally accepted that the town’s name is linked to the location of three tower houses (though more commonly referred to as castles) built by the O’Connor Clan in the area during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The earliest of these was built at Dough close the the estuary of the River Inagh followed by a second, built on an elevated position overlooking the cascades on the river, a mile or so inland, at present day Ennistymon and a third a further mile to the south at Glann.

The town’s name in Irish, Inis Tí Meán (Island of the Middle House), comes therefore from its location as the middle castle of the three. Initially Ennistymon Castle would have been surrounded on three side by water, giving it an appearance of being virtually on an island. Extensive earthworks and landscaping followed in the eighteenth century when the O’Connor castle was demolished to make way for Ennistymon House, now Falls Hotel, built by Edward O’Brien in 1764.

From the late eighteenth century, Ennistymon had a Session House which stood at the junction of Market Place and Parliament Street, so called because it subsequently housed the Bridewell, Courthouse and Constitutional Hall. By 1824, when the Christian Brothers established a school in the town, the population was 1,500 and street names such as New Town Street and Market Place reflect the towns expansion. Ennistymon was described by Samuel Lewis in 1837 as irregularly built but of picturesque appearance. In 1841 the town had a population of 2,500. Fortunes changed with the arrival of the Famine. A workhouse was built to accommodate the poor and destitute. The Ennistymon workhouse was built to accommodate 870 inmates. However, in 1847 the average number of inmates per month was 600 and the number of deaths 961. By 1850 there were over 2,500 people in the various workhouses of the Ennistymon Union. Between 1847 and 1851 almost 5,000 people had died, many of cholera and the town population had dropped to less than 2,000.

Griffiths Valuation of 1855 provides some clues as to the economic life of a town recovering from famine. There were about 241 houses dispersed throughout seven streets and the lanes leading from them. The number of businesses was listed as 27. An emerging middle class, consisting of shop-keepers and business people had shifted the centre of social activity away from the older areas of Churchill and Bogberry. The establishment of a butter market towards the end of that century marked a new stage in the development of Ennistymon. Its air of bustling commerce and its huge firkin making industry gave Ennistymon Butter Market the reputation for many years as being second in importance only to Cork. By the 1880s the town was prosperous. The opening of the West Clare Railway in 1887 was a major boost for Ennistymon. The railway line’s initial commercial benefit was the immediate transportation of butter and cattle from the local markets and fairs and the regular supply of goods to local shops.

The twentieth century saw the establishment of North Clare Creameries in the town which at its height employed over 70 people. Other industries followed in the 1960s and ‘70s and despite an occasional decline, Ennistymon has always maintained its position at the centre of the region’s commercial life and nowadays benefits greatly from being at the heart of one of Ireland’s prime tourism areas.