I visited tiny town with 60 independent businesses - everywhere in UK should be like it

Having returned from my trip to Miltown Malbay, a town in County Clare, Ireland, I am still having to remind myself what it was called, as I can't get past how it sounds like the Leicestershire town of Melton Mowbray in some sort of parallel universe. I was on the Emerald Isle with friends for a nice, chilled-out break. Miltown Malbay is very small, but crammed full with independent businesses - shops and, of course, pubs.

Google reckons there are around 60. The stand-out is Clearys Bar - which a reviewer has called "the best pub in Ireland". It is extremely cosy, as you're basically sitting in the landlord's living room. I'd imagine that this is what lots of pubs were like across Ireland and the UK many years ago. A good time was also had in Friels Pub, also known as Lynch's, complete with some traditional music played by locals.

I treated myself to a few pints of Beamish - a delicious stout.

In another, me and my friends bonded with some local lads - Manchester United fans - over the football (did you know that Coventry City are going up?).

As well as pubs, there is a clothes shop, a bridal store, bookmaker's, and pharmacies, as well as three local restaurants, a pizzeria, a Chinese takeaway, and a fish and chip shop.

On the outskirts is a very useful supermarket - SuperValu. But the chain doesn't seem to have wounded the town's high street.

The sheer amount of pubs, more or less in one street, is what blew me away. Google says there are around eight operating at the moment.

They provide a pounding heart to the place, which is what many towns in Britain are sadly missing nowadays.

It feels like many places have been gutted, with their communal feels lost.

The total number of pubs in England and Wales has fallen below the 39,000 mark, according to recent data.

It was reported in 2023 that Ireland ranked the third highest in the world for the number of pubs per head of population.

Menawhile, the UK had the seventh highest number of pubs.

Data suggested that Slovakia, Hungary, and Ireland had more than five pubs per 10,000 people, whereas, in the UK there were only three.

Britain and Ireland do pubs best. But, also considering my earlier crawl in Galway, it looks like the latter is clearly ahead of the former.