The unlikely place you’ll find some of the world’s tastiest oysters

I’m prepared for the history. Moran’s Oyster Cottage has occupied this same spot on the lip of the Kilcolgan River, near its meeting with Galway Bay, since 1797. So, you expect a little old-world Irish charm.

And there’s plenty. For more than 220 years this thatched cottage has been welcoming thirsty visitors with open arms and a crackling fire.

Back in its original form, Moran’s was a purveyor of alcoholic beverages only, plying a voracious crowd as they alighted from fishing boats in the docks and made their way to the nearest watering hole. The village of Kilcolgan had four pubs in its heyday, as this small port attracted maritime business servicing County Galway.

But then, it died. Kilcolgan all but disappeared. In the 1930s a new highway was built nearby, linking the north and south Galway coasts, and Kilcolgan as a trading port became redundant.

Consider the lot then of Michael Moran, the fifth generation of Morans to run the pub, who watched as his family business began to vanish before his eyes. Kilcolgan’s three other drinking establishments closed their doors and their owners moved on. Michael, however, was determined to keep Moran’s alive.

And he did so after hitting on a novel idea: serve seafood to go with all the whisky and beer. Make the most of the 283 hectares of oyster beds in Kilcolgan Harbour, and the wild salmon and prawns caught in the nearby vicinity, and offer something no one else appeared to have thought to do.

The rest, as they say, is history. These days a large part of the old cottage the Morans lived in has been transformed into another section of the pub. Two of the Morans’ old bedrooms have become private dining rooms, or “snugs”.

The walls here are strewn with mementos and maritime bric-a-brac collected over the centuries; the wooden floors still creak under the weight of 200 years of history; photos of celebrity visitors such as Pierce Brosnan and Paul Newman beam across the dining room and tell of a struggling old pub that got things right.