Seafood of the finest kind is served at this ancient Irish pub, but horned hats are optional
Looking over my shoulder I can see my fellow viking crew members pulling hard at their oars. Turning to the right I can see the shoreline and our settlement. A quiet voice in my head is telling me the history of the place.
Ten minutes later and I’m back in the pub, readjusting to the world as it is now.
The Glyde Inn, Annagassan County Louth has stood for centuries on the site of what was once a major viking settlement. It was ‘National Irish Pub of the Year’ in 2018 and from the front it seems no more than a small pub in a terraced row of houses, but pass through the cosy 1770s interior and head out back and you come across breathtaking views of both the enormous Dundalk bay and the Mountains of Mourne.
The enterprising owners Paul and Ann O’Neill have built up the business since 1976 and recently created an engrossing VR headset experience to illustrate the village’s viking settlement history, a time when it was Linn Duachaill, a Viking Longphort. It really is the last thing you’d expect to find in an Irish pub once the evening haunt of C.S Lewis, author of the Narnia tales.
Viking tales aside, I’m here for the beer and the Viking Seafood Feast. These waters produce superb seafood and have done so since the Viking times, one of the reasons they chose to settle here about an hour’s drive from what is now Dublin. After a surely very difficult and perilous journey around Scotland, to find this earthly paradise must have been a relief.
I’m relieved to find it too. While the weather outside is unusually fine for October, a cosy pub is always a pleasure to dive into.
With the VR goggles off it’s time to don beer goggles for a bottle of Linn Duachaill Irish Pale Ale, the house beer of The Glyde Inn and made in small batches for them by the Brehon Brewhouse. Nicely hopped, not like the London hipster pale ales that taste of urinal cakes, it’s a good palate teaser for the first dish- Carlingford oysters from nearby Carlingford.
Superb oysters, screamingly fresh, plump and briny, you’ll be hard pushed to find better. The beer is a perfect pairing.
Next crab legs, again pulled out of the nearby waters. Massive things simply dressed with Irish butter aromatised with lemon. I wield my ‘crackers’ with what I assume is skill, but manage to explode a leg so that butter, and fragments of crab, go everywhere, some of it on other diners. This being Ireland it’s taken in good spirit.
I spend a happy ten minutes teasing every last piece of the deliciously sweet white meat out of the shells. So simple, so delicious. I drink a glass of Fairy Trees Chardonnay aged in Irish Whiskey Barrels for 3 months with it. The grapes are grown not far away on the banks of the River Dee. Who knew wine was made in Ireland? Not me. The creamy texture and hints of whiskey work well with the crab.
Like a true Viking I plough on. Next up are razor clams, one of the most delicious seafoods there is. Again fished straight from Dundalk bay, cooked they’re served in a garlic, white wine reduction. For anyone that’s not had razor clams, the texture is soft but firm rather like a cooked king prawn. The tip is usually more tender than the base, which is a bit more chewy. Lovely.
And then something new to me, Cloggerhead Black Sole served on the bone. What a fish, the flesh lifts away perfectly, while dripping butter, and soon only a Tom & Jerry skeleton is left. What a London restaurant might charge for such superb fish I can only guess at and it’s academic anyway, it would never taste as good if it had to travel hundreds of miles rather than hundreds of yards.
It comes with Colcannon mash that’s made gloriously green with sea radish that I saw chef foraging earlier from the shoreline. And with that I breathe a deep sigh of happiness and down a Bailey’s before heading off back to modern times.
This really is the kind of seafood meal that would be all over the Sunday magazines if it were in Spain, and yet this kind of excellence is available just next door to Britain.
It’s another excuse to travel to County Louth for a short break of a foodie kind. Skol!
www.theglydeinn.ie
Aer Lingus fly to Dublin with 9 daily flights between London Heathrow and Dublin, Ireland. One-way fares start from £59.99 each way including taxes and charges. For more information visit www.aerlingus.com”
Nick’s visit was facilitated by www.discoverboynevalley.ie