Salthill was frequented mainly in the summer, and mainly by country people.  Many of these were known locally as the 'Fámairí', farming people who came on holiday after bringing in the harvest.  They rented out rooms, and cooked their own food, which they always brought with them.  They used to congregate around 'the lazy wall', where they would gossip, and regularly meet friends they had made in other years, go for 'a dip'  and walk the coast road. 

Salthill was changed dramatically by the introduction of horse drawn trams, a regular service from Eyre Square which made the resort more accessible to the day-tripper and the tourist.  Traffic increased, the prom was built, hotels were built, the golf club and the tennis club opened.  Things were improving.  The park was laid out, the tramcars were replaced by the Galway Omnibus Company, hotels were advertised as having "electric light throughout", a wooden diving tower was erected at Blackrock, houses were being built, the Hangar Ballroom was erected. 

The change was significant but steady, and then, in 1949, Seapoint was built, and the pace of change moved up a gear.  Salthill found itself catering for large crowds.  The Currach Races of the 1950's brought crowds of up to 50,000 to the resort, and the newly built Pearse Stadium attracted large numbers of G.A.A. followers, and thousands revelled in the showband era in Seapoint and the Hangar. 

In the sixties there was an enormous increase in tourism traffic, and this coupled with industrial development in Galway, meant huge expansion in Salthill.  Hundreds of new houses were built, singing pubs meant new excitements, hotels appeared everywhere, the promenade was extended to become the longest in the country, Leisureland was an ultra modern swimming pool and entertainment centre, schools were built. Salthill had become a town, full of shops, full of people, full of life.  In recent times the pace of change has quickened even more, and every facility has been provided for tourist and resident alike. 

The sleepy village of one hundred years ago with the six week long tourist season has now developed into an end of the century mayor urban centre with a year long attraction for tourists. 

Salthill looks to the new Millennium with confidence.