About Milltown House

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Award-winning Milltown House is a famous boutique Hotel in Dingle that has appeared on National TV and radio, and is renowned for its connection to Hollywood stars such as Robert Mitchum – who lived here in 1969 during the filming of the classic Oscar-winning movie, ‘Ryans Daughter’.

Owners

Patrick Wade and Stephen McPhilemy have lovingly restored Milltown House to its status as a landmark accommodation property in Dingle. It is also one of the premier boutique Bed and Breakfast’s along Ireland’s ‘Wild Atlantic Way’.

Milltown offers 10 huge en-suite rooms, 5 with glorious views of the Atlantic Ocean and Dingle Bay.

Our landmark property on the fringe of Dingle village, only 10-minute walk to the center of town. We offer a first-class accommodation experience, a serene private environment, and a hearty Irish welcome.

We enjoy a decor that tastefully blends the 120-year-old history of this traditional Irish House with Milltown House’s year-long flirtation with Hollywood stars and directors in 1969.

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STEPHEN MCPHILEMY is the 100% Irish co-owner of Milltown House. Stephen has family links to the Dingle Peninsula and has brought thousands of international visitors to this Irish gem as a tour guide.

He was born in Historic Derry and spent his formative years in his beloved Donegal before returning to his hometown for study and business. He has owned and operated an award-winning tourist hostel and luxury apartment accommodation venture in the Walled City for over 15 years.

Stephen has also worked for one of his main 3 mentors in life, US Travel TV star Rick Steves, for 15 years – visiting Dingle every 2 weeks all summer since 1999 on his behalf, and appearing frequently on his TV and Radio show.

Stephen’s first cousin Paul is happily married on Slea Head in the West Kerry Gaeltacht and so he already has some family roots laid on this world-renowned magical peninsula.

Stephen is a Failte Ireland approved tour-guide, graduating in the class of 1997 in Dublin at the National Tour-Guide training course. He is a history and politics graduate of Queens University, Belfast; and in 2014 Stephen was one of 4 judges chosen by the Irish Times newspaper to judge their high-profile competition ‘The best place to holiday in Ireland’.

PATRICK WADE is an Irish-American from Bakersfield, California – home to some of the biggest oil fields in America! He is a successful equine-pharmaceutical entrepreneur aand has recently become a Hollywood producer.

Patrick is a real lover of Dingle and Ireland in general. He met Stephen when he was a “broke backpacker” and recent graduate of UCLA, touring Ireland in 2004. Stephen was his equally broke Jedi Tour-Guide. They set off on a week-long adventure-filled journey around Ireland, which, unfortunately, included Stephen ripping the side of the bus open after a collision with a metal bollard in a parking lot.

On that fateful trip, they only did a 2 hour stop in Dingle (no overnight stay, I hear you gasping with disbelief). Instead of taking his tour-guides recommendation and going to see Fungi the Dolphin with the rest of the group, Patrick, in true maverick style, went exploring. He experienced legendary, near-mythical, pubs like Dick Mack’s and Foxy John’s (the BEST pubs in Dingle, therefore the world!) There, he met the real locals, heard conversations in the beautiful Gaelic language for the first time, was mesmerized, and vowed to come back on a more permanent basis one day!

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Fogra / NOTE:
Fate also intervened as it often does in these cases, and years later both lads discovered by chance that Stephens great-uncle from Donegal, Fr. William aka Jim McGinley, was also Patrick’s family priest in Bakersfield for several years. He spent his last Christmas on earth in Patrick’s family home! Small world…

Patrick kindly organized for Stephen to visit the grave of ‘Fr. Bill/Fr. Jim’, Lt. Col retd. US Army, where he lies buried in the hot sandy soil of the California Desert, a far contrast to the misty green Glens of West Donegal. (Stephen became the latest in a long line of his clan to making the journey to Bakersfield).

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