The only REAL Irish bar in Spain: Couple had pub built on the Emerald Isle then shipped it to Fuengirola - where they now sell Guinness at £5-a-pint

Dark mahogany wood, Guinness on draught and packets of Tayto behind the bar – you'd think you were in the atmospheric backstreets of Dublin when you order a pint at the Wild Rover.

Outside though, punters are wearing shorts and t-shirts and the bright Spanish sun is shining. 

This isn't a pub tucked away on the Emerald Isle, but in fact on the streets of Los Boliches, in the popular Costa del Sol resort of Fuengirola.

Landlady Lisa Mernock, 47, tells the Daily Mail that 'every single person who walks in that door is just shocked' by how authentically Irish it is.

Lisa says: 'That was the goal; to make it like a pub at home.'

Everything inside the Wild Rover Irish Pub – from the carpet to the wallpaper – is from Ireland, and a lot of it has been handcrafted by Lisa and her partner Alan Malone in a workshop in Dublin.

The establishment is run by a fully Irish team and with Guinness on draught for just €6 (£5) a pint, it's a far cry from London where a glass of the black stuff averages £6.72, according to the Guinndex, or Dublin where it can reach highs of €11 (£9.20).

The craic flows just like it does on the Emerald Isle too, with the occasional live music session taking place in the pub. 

The Wild Rover Irish Pub launched on August 18 in Los Boliches, in Fuengirola, Spain

Since opening its doors, owner Lisa Mernock says the watering hole has been 'busy, busy, busy'

Lisa says everyone who has walked through the door has been 'shocked' by how great the bar looks (Pictured with partner Alan Malone)

Dubliner Lisa isn't new to the Irish pub scene in Spain, she moved to the country when she was just 19 years old and has owned two Irish bars before her most recent venture. 

She met her partner Alan in one of them and he encouraged her to go for something bigger, which led to the couple deciding to bring their dream of the Wild Rover to life.

Using their joint experience – Alan owns bars in Dublin and has built venues around Europe, they set about constructing the pub from scratch.

The building had sat empty for 17 years and is coincidentally located next door to Lisa's original bar. 

The couple pooled together some items from their previous pubs and set about building the interior in a workshop in Dublin before shipping it over to Spain.

'I flew back to Ireland and we both were in the workshop for months,' Lisa shares. 

They drove some items over on the ferry from Rosslare to Bilbao and the rest was shipped in a 40-foot container.

Everything was rebuilt in Spain with the help of 'a few of the local lads from Ireland'. The end result? A one-of-a-kind watering hole right by the sea. 

'They say they're Irish bars in Fuengirola, but they're not really,' Lisa says. 

'I have all-Irish staff and everything has come from Ireland, it's authentic. A lot of them [Spain's Irish bars], it's just fronting. I'm not slating other bars by any means, but I'm saying it is genuinely down to the wallpaper, to the carpet, to the pictures, to the woods, everything.'

But why transport everything from one country to another? Lisa says: 'The wood over here wouldn't be as good, I don't think. 

'To manufacture a bar like that, the mahogany and everything, in Spain, I think the only way to do it properly was definitely in Ireland.'

She built the interior of the pub in Dublin with the help of her partner, Alan Malone (pictured in the workshop in Ireland)

Everything from the mahogany bar to the chairs outside are made or sourced from Ireland

Once everything was shipped to Spain, the couple went about putting it all together 

The relaxed culture in Spain meant the process would have been slower too. 'The Spanish are so laid back, everything's "manana, manana",' she adds.

The landlady tried ordering things in Spain but said it was 'a nightmare', saying: 'So everything had to come from Ireland, it was quicker!'

Despite the long journey across the sea, only one piece of furniture broke along the way – a beautiful antique grandfather clock bought from Kilkenny.

'The side glass broke, but it was not a huge deal,' Lisa insists.

All of the furniture has been sourced from different parts of Ireland – including pews from churches and the hand-carved terraced chairs kept outside the pub are from a nunnery.

Alan crafted a beautiful stained glass dome and one of the 'worst challenges' for the couple was fitting it in the pub. 

After a long, 12-hour journey from Ireland to Spain, they set about fitting the front of the pub with glass and the wooden door before realising the statement glasswork was still outside. 

'We had to take the whole front of the bar back out again to get the dome in,' Lisa says, admitting they are 'laughing about it now'.

Inside, it's easy to feel like you're in a pub in the heart of Dublin

A special feature is the stained glass dome crafted by Alan, pictured

Her favourite feature in the bar? A charming sitting room area that has a fireplace, which Lisa describes as 'special'.

'But there is still more [to come], we're still adding to it,' she shares. 'We have a snug, which is like a little private room, but that is not finished yet.'

Lisa intends to add to the Wild Rover each year with more furniture and items from Ireland.

After nine months of hard work, the establishment opened on August 18 and the Guinness has been flowing non-stop with locals and tourists pouring in.

'Since we turned the key of the door it's just been busy, busy, busy,' Lisa reveals.

She credits her social media manager for spreading the word on TikTok and Facebook and says: 'A lot of people have come in and been like, "Oh my God, we followed your journey". So it just shows you social media does definitely work.'