The atmospheric pressure and temperature charts for the afternoon of Friday 1 December 1950 indicate that the weather on the south-west coast of Ireland was poor and that in Kenmare, Co. Kerry, it was especially bad. Despite the cold, wet and very windy conditions, at about four o’clock Moeran evidently left his lodgings at the Lansdowne Arms Hotel for a walk down to the town pier: a distance of about half a mile. By the time he reached the river estuary, the light would have been fading, but he was a well-known and recognisable figure. According to the report in the Irish Times:

By the time they returned, a doctor had been summoned and resuscitation was attempted unsuccessfully. Moeran's body was taken to the local mortuary, and an inquest was opened and adjourned until the next day. The report of the composer’s death was quickly communicated by telephone and telegram from that remote corner of Ireland and was printed in many newspapers in Britain as early as the following morning. Lionel Hill recalled: ‘We received the shock of [Moeran’s] sudden death in the morning papers.’ Within a few days, the composer's life and career had been summarised and celebrated by obituary writers in Britain, Ireland and around the world. The news of his death was received in Ledbury by telegram and similarly by Coetmore in Australia. Ada Esther Moeran wrote to her on 3 December: