In Tuamgraney, close to the shore of Lough Derg, there is a café where you can drink your coffee while a warp is being made beside you.
A few steps away the old Hattersley looms are clacking, and the knitting machines are turning out scarves in colours you won’t see anywhere else. It’s a working mill, and you are sitting right in the middle of it.
The shop is full of that colour. Most of McKernan’s products go to boutiques, concept stores and museum shops around the world, but here you can buy the full collection right where it is made. Because this is a working mill, there are always specials too: pieces from a run that didn’t go quite to plan or were made from discontinued yarn. The new collection is being designed at the moment, and dozens of samples are made as patterns, colours and sizes are tried out. Those that don’t make it into the collection go on the shelves, one of a kind and priced well below the usual range.
Alongside them is a curated collection from independent makers around Europe: throws, bags, woollen waistcoats, felted slippers, flowers and hot-water bottles, candles, glass vases, printed decorations, soaps, jewellery and very colourful towels.
The Weaver’s Café carries the same colour through, with felt balls in every shade hanging from the ceiling, bright furniture and prints on the walls that pick up the colours around the room. The cakes are homemade and change through the week. At lunchtime there is soup with bread, a salad bowl, sausage rolls and sourdough toasties made fresh.
Outside, the south facing walled garden is as colourful as everything else. The walls keep the wind out and hold the warmth, so even in November people take their coffee outside as soon as the sun comes out.
You can watch the scarves being made through the workshop windows, or join a mill tour at 11am or 2pm, Monday to Friday, bookable online.
There are not many places like it. Some people come for a scarf and stay for the afternoon. Others drop in for a coffee, find themselves in the middle of a working mill, and leave with a colourful little something they hadn’t planned on. It’s a warm place on a cold day, and a good reason to take the road to East Clare this winter.
McKernan, On the Green, Tuamgraney, Co. Clare V94R1W4
Opening hours:
Café Monday-Sunday 10am to 4pm
Shop Monday-Sunday 10am to 5pm
mckernan.ie · +353 61 921 527
