Clarinbridge

Famous in the gourmet world for its oysters, Clarinbridge is a small town just south of Galway at the head of Galway Bay.

Each year on the second of September, the tiny town of Clarinbridge, 16km from Galway comes alive as it hosts the famous, Clarinbridge Oyster Festival , a precursor to the bigger Galway International Oyster Festival .

The festival began in 1954, when it was attended by just 34 people and has since developed along with the Galway Oyster Festival. Nowadays some 10,000 people descend on this tiny village and around 2m Euros is pumped into the local economy. The action centres on Paddy Burke's Oyster Inn and Moran's Oyster Cottage, which overlooks Dunbulcaun Bay, the home to 700 acres of beds where the famous oysters are reared.

Clarinbridge also has a number of quaint antique shops in and around the town and just about every eatery, from hotels and restaurants to humble pubs offer fresh Clarinbridge Oysters on their menu, renowned as the best oysters in the world.