Healthy Eating

Keeping Fit

Croi Solais

Complementary Therapies

Healthy Eating

When you are in Milltown, why not visit its famous Organic Market – click here for more details or pop into the Cafe Beag and check out its delicious home-cooked vegetarian menu.

Keeping Fit

Milltown is a great centre for walking and cycling, both cheap and easy ways to get fit and stay fit. As part of our Sustainable tourism project, a series of 7 different walks and a half-day cycle tour of the parish are being put together – watch this space for more information. If you check out the local map you can work out your own route – perhaps around the Mass Rock or down to Killaha Abbey and enjoy some of Milltown’s rich heritage.

Croi Solais Project

A small group of interested people from the Milltown area (representing a wide spread of areas such as community projects, art, tourism, and local businesses, traditional music (Comhaltas) and dance, schools, Irish language and local heritage, complementary therapy, organic market, church) met regularly in the first 6 months of 2004. The name chosen for the group was “Croi Solais” or Heart of Light and was chosen because of the fact that Milltown is in the heart, or hub, of Kerry and after the Abha Solais which flows through the town.

Their main efforts were focussed on holding a festival which took place over the May Bank Holiday weekend 2004. The weekend was a modern slant on the traditional Bealtaine festival and proved to be an outstanding success. May Eve saw a Failte an Samhadrh or Welcome to Summer ceremony at the Hanafin Memorial followed by music, song and dance and drama by local children. May Day morning saw a large group of intrepid local people making their way to the GAA pitch at 6.30am for a session of “Shintaido”, a series of Japanese stretching exercises, followed by a walk to Killaha Abbey and then a communal breakfast. The Organic Market ran as usual and its grounds provided space for a percussion circle, group painting and children’s sculpture.

The newly opened holistic centre provided introductory talks and demonstrations on reflexology, homeopathy, shiatsu, metamorphosis and counseling and there was an exhibition of local crafts and art in the windows of houses and businesses along the streets. This website was then officially launched and there was a chance for the business community of the town to get together to explore the kinds of ideas that were emerging from Croi Solais as a business opportunity. A business directory was also launched bringing 100 businesses in the community into a local window to encourage a “shop local “drive. In the afternoon, there was a recital of classical music by the Kerry Orchestra in the town centre and both musicians and audience then walked to the Mass Rock for further music and Bealtaine celebrations. In the evening, there was an enjoyable Scleip na Bealtaine multicultural evening of song, stories, dance and music in the Hall, in association with Comhaltas.

In 2005, a similar festival took place, again with huge success. The Bealtaine festival May Bank Holiday Weekend in Milltown is here to stay!

Complementary Therapies

Over the past few years, with the continuing success and growth of the Organic Market, Milltown has become a centre for complementary therapies with a large number of therapists qualified in various different areas. Some of these have regular stalls at the Market, others operate from the Injoybeing Holistic Centre, where there are regular classes in yoga and Buddhist meditation, and others operate from their own homes or clinics.

If you would like to contact any of these therapists to find out more about the particular therapy they offer, telephone umbers are listed below:

Ray Nolan - Homeopath, Allergy testing - 066 9765960

Thomas O’Sullivan - Injoybeing Holistic Centre Reflexology, Reiki, Avatar and more… 066 9767314

Irmela Jay - Homeopath and “The Journey” Practitioner - 064 44540

David Cohen - Osteopath, Naturopath - 087 9498462

Jacqueline Sweeney - Massage Therapist - 087 2458666

Majella Mangan - Colonic Hydrotherapist - 066 9767502

Colette Leask - Psychotherapist - 087 6967830

Rebecca Atkinson - Homeopath - 066 9765839

Erina MacSweeney - Food, nutrition and optimum health, Neways - 066 9767830

Sinead Whyte - Sound Therapy - 087 2229905

Amantha Murphy - Ancient Site facilitator and Shaman - 066 9767253

Pamela Sheehan - Osteopath - 066 9767304

Rusty - Angel Therapy and psychic readings - 066 9763217

Margo Boerma - “Soulsound” work - 086 3478038