Oysters are on the menu in many restaurants along the Clew Bay coastline, from Mulranny to Murrisk. There is, in fact, a long history of oyster eating in the Clew Bay area and evidence from at least the second half of the nineteenth century that the native Clew Bay Oyster was a sought–after commodity as far away as London.
In 1844, 170 boats manned by 1,000 people descended on John C Garvey's oyster beds at Murrisk and 'carried off the oysters.' The Clew Bay oyster was so valuable that in 1867, Thomas Court and Richard Aldridge were engaged as armed watchmen to protect the oyster beds at Murrisk.
By 1860, there was a concern that the level of dredging for oysters in Clew Bay would result in the extinction of the oyster fisheries. Oysters were dredged continuously during the closed season. The beds were in the ownership of the Marquess of Sligo, and the boats were dredging without permission.
At a meeting in Westport, the Commissioners of Fisheries passed a bylaw prohibiting dredging between April and September. A separate bylaw outlawed the taking of oysters under 2.5 inches in diameter. The bylaws had no effect; the dredging continued, and especially the dredging of undersized oysters. Summonses were issued, and prosecutions secured. A fine of £2 per boat was imposed for each offence.
English buyers or their agents were taking oysters at a price that was 300 per cent higher than they paid three years earlier. Apart from oysters from the Murrisk beds, all the oysters were exported to England. The high price was a significant incentive for those willing to take the risk of prosecution for illegal dredging.
George Austin, the operator of the beds at Murrisk, leased them from the Garveys of Murrisk. The Garvey's had beds in waters adjacent to three townlands in Murrisk – Carrowkeel, Carrowkernan and Murrisknabool. These beds were said to have transplanted oysters valued at £2,000.
In 1864, such was the extent of dredging that it was thought that there would be no oysters left in the bay after another two years. The arrival of the railway in the west of Ireland likely facilitated the relatively rapid transit of oysters across Ireland and on to the British rail system after the sea crossing to Holyhead.
Those dredging small oysters were selling them to buyers on the Kent coast. There they were placed in beds and readied for sale into the London market. The Clew Bay oyster was now the Kentish oyster. It is not known what indication of origin was shown on the menus in the fine restaurants of London. It is almost certain that the oysters, after their long journey, also made it onto the dining tables of the big houses.
The thirty-one-year lease of the beds at Murrisk, with ponds and watch houses, granted by John C Garvey to George Austin expired in 1894. Francis Garvey then took legal proceedings against Austin, claiming that the buildings, ponds, and sluices were in ruins and that the oyster beds were dirty and devoid of oysters. He claimed £1,250 in damages. The beds undoubtedly recovered. In 1913, Mrs Garvey advertised oysters from the beds at seven shillings per hundred.
Today, remnants of nineteenth-century ponds where oysters were kept for harvesting, sluices and related infrastructure are visible along the Carrowkeel shoreline not far from Murrisk Abbey (see photograph of circular pond taken from sluice gate opening ). Oyster farming is part of the story of the Murrisk fishing community that is proudly retold in the little Fisherman's Museum located in the Murrisk Café at the base of Croagh Patrick.
The unique native Clew Bay oysters can be enjoyed at the annual Murrisk Oyster Festival and, at appropriate times of the year, at restaurants in Murrisk and elsewhere around the bay. A side order of Guinness is optional but always recommended. A gin martini or excellent Sauvignon Blanc also pairs well.
The native Clew Bay oysters continue to reside as they have, for countless generations, in offshore beds known only to local fishermen. Harvesting is now a regulated activity conducted under licence with strict conditions.
