Foynes

Foynes ( Irish: Faing ) is a small port town in County Limerick in the west of Ireland with 606 inhabitants ( as of 2006).

Foynes is located on the edge of a hilly landscape on the southern bank of the Shannon Estuary. The place is located in the north of County Limerick on the national road N69 from Limerick City on Listowel to Tralee in County Kerry, about 40 km west of Limerick City.

In the early days of aviation, the place was the westernmost starting place on the European Atlantic coast for flying boats. This changed when, in 1942, the nearby Shannon Airport was opened on a bog on the northern side of the river. The starting place for flying boats joined in 1946. Locally there is the Foynes Flying Boat Museum, a museum of flying boats.