A pearl near the oyster beds

THE chance to bed down in some style alongside Galway’s famous oyster beds, and just in time for the September Oyster Festival in nearby Clarinbridge, has come up with the sale of Claddagh Cottage.

A ramble along the shoreline from this waterside home - a bit of a whopper with over 3,000 sq ft of space - will bring you to Moran’s on the Weir, and, at the risk of choking on the puns, Brandy Pier with boat moorings a few hundred yards away makes the bay your oyster.

Location is at Killeenaran, four miles from Kinvara and 12 miles from Galway city, with views straight across the famous bay to the Burren in Co Clare. The bay produces tonnes of fresh oyster each year, and over 1,000 visitors come to the Clarinbridge Oyster Festival (September 5, on) to wash down the slippery molluscs with lashings of fresh porter.