Co Kerry

I very rarely have a trip to the seashore without fishing the local water. When I stayed with my friend Thomas Dane in Caherdaniel a couple of years ago, I couldn’t help but notice the sea urchin shells washed up on the sea shore in among the rocks, while I was out fishing off the Lamb’s Head Peninsula. The fishing was a bit grim and we only caught a couple of small pollock, so I couldn’t help myself but ask the guys from a diving school just near us in the tiny harbour if they would mind grabbing us some sea urchins. They give us a rather ‘you must be mad’ look, to say the least, and asked what we were going to do with them. ‘Eat them, of course!’ was our prompt reply, and then they really did think we were crazy Englishmen, as it was obviously not a local delicacy, except for the hardened seafood extremists like us.