This local food grocery and coffee hub shares a lively space with Clifden Post Office, right in the heart of the town. Even if you don't run into a familiar face, the chances are you'll have made a new friend before you leave. This is a zone where chats and giggles are encouraged, as is a little good-natured slagging over music choices or sporting allegiances.
'Community is very much at the heart of what we do,' says Alice Coyle, who opened Coyles in June 2024. Having moved home to Connemara from Cork just before Covid, Alice noticed the difficulty in accessing locally grown food compared to 'the Food Capital' down south. As a response to this, she set up Neighbourfood Clifden, a Connemara chapter of Neighbourfood's nationwide network of online markets connecting local growers to local customers. Every Thursday evening in Clifden, you could collect your crateful of real sourdough bread from Renvyle, craft beer from Spiddal, raw honey from Cashel, fresh fish from Cleggan, as well as local eggs and organic vegetables. With Neighbourfood proving to Alice that a market clearly existed for real local produce, a 'bricks and mortar' version just had to be explored.
'I believe food is a real driver of community,' she explains. 'The business of growing veg, rearing heritage breeds, or baking real sourdough bread from scratch is not a highly profitable one. You don't have the economies of scale, for starters, so you must charge more, and that is hard for customers to take on, especially with multinationals charging so little nearby. But when you shop local, you don't just spread the love — you get some in return.
That money you spend will eventually find its way back to you in some shape or form.' That shorter supply chain, Alice says, brings with it a reassurance about not only where your food is being sourced, but by whom. You may even know the producer. You can trust they care a lot more about your health and that of the planet than any profit-driven factory farm a million miles away. Real people producing real food, and without any of the chemical pesticides, growth hormones or cheap fillers that corporations use to maximise profits. Call it passion, call it a type of madness, these food producers are driven by something other than just money.
But passion alone does not pay the bills, as we all know. If these sound like the kind of community heroes you want to support, make a habit of popping into Coyles off Clifden Square once in a while and spending with intent. If it's not the bread that keeps you coming back, it'll be the earthy-tasting spinach, the indecently chocolatey brownies, the mad-looking Letterfrack mushrooms, or simply the promise of locally roasted coffee and a chat with a familiar face.
Coyles is open 9.30–4pm every day, except Mondays. Follow @coyles_of_connemara on Instagram for news and updates.