Our story
One man, one kiln, 1923.
A family has smoked fish behind the harbour wall in Ardglass for over a century. This is how it started, who kept it going, and why the way we do it has not changed much.
Beginnings in 1923
In 1923 a great-grandfather of the family that still runs this business built a single kiln behind the harbour wall in Ardglass and began smoking fish over oak. That is the whole of the founding story, and we are not going to dress it up. It was a small trade, done carefully.
Ardglass is a fishing harbour. The boats came in a few yards from that first kiln, and they still do. The mackerel and the eel we smoke today are landed here. That closeness to the water is not a slogan for us. It is the reason the business is where it is.
The recipe for the cure dates from the same year. It has been handed from one generation to the next along with the keys. We can tell you what goes into the smoke, which is oak and nothing else, and how long it takes, which is days rather than hours. The rest stays in the family.
Oak, the family cure, and time. Since 1923.
What has changed is who we sell to. For most of a century the fish went out to the trade: hotels, fishmongers, delicatessens and restaurants in Belfast, Glasgow and further afield. Now we send it to people at home as well, including a good many who grew up in Ardglass or Co. Down and want the taste of it in Dublin, London or wherever they have ended up.
The original kiln
The kiln he built is still there. It stands behind the harbour wall on Harbour Road, and if you come to collect an order you will walk past it. It is not a museum piece behind a rope. It is simply where the business started, and we have never seen a reason to take it down.
Everything we have done since has been measured against it. A kiln is a plain thing: a chamber, a fire, a draught, and fish hung above the smoke. What matters is the wood you burn, how hot you let it get, and how long you are prepared to wait. Those three things have not changed here in a hundred years.
The kiln is the mark on this site, drawn as a plain line beside the fish from the old logo. When Declan looks at the logo we wanted him to see the fish he has always known, and the kiln he walks past every morning.
Four generations
Four generations of the one family have worked at these kilns. Each one learned from the one before, standing at the same kilns, using the same recipe, burning the same oak.
Declan runs the business today. He looks after the trade customers, and he has answered the main telephone line for forty years. If you ring 028 4484 1223 you will get him, and if you rang it in the 1980s you got him then too. Beside him is Paddy, head smoker, who has stood at the kilns for the same forty years.
The next generation is now bringing the smokehouse to people at home. That is what this website is for. The trade customers are not going anywhere, and neither is the phone. We are simply opening the front door a little wider.
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1923
The founder
One kiln behind the harbour wall, and a recipe that has not changed since.
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Between
The generations that carried it
Names and dates to be added from the family's records.
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Today
Declan
Runs the business and the trade. Forty years answering the same phone line.
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Next
The next generation
Taking the smokehouse to home customers across the UK and Ireland.
From the archive
We are not a company with a marketing department and a photo library. What we have is a photograph of Declan from about 1998, some old product shots from trade fairs, and whatever is still in the office. As we find things, they will go here.
How we smoke today
The short answer is: the same way. Oak, the family cure, and a slow smoke over days rather than hours. Paddy decides when it is ready, and nothing leaves until he is happy with it.
We will be plain about where the fish comes from, because you would want to know. Our salmon is farmed, mostly in Scotland, from suppliers we have used for years and trust. We do not chase the cheapest boat. Our mackerel and our eel are landed locally off Ardglass, and the eel is only smoked when the season allows. Our trout comes from a farm inland, not far from here.
We are SALSA certified, which is the food safety certification we keep up to date, and we are a member of Food NI. Our food hygiene rating will be shown on this site once it has been confirmed. Beyond that, the fish is the argument.
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Oak
We burn oak and nothing else. It gives a clean, gentle smoke that suits fish.
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The cure
The family recipe from 1923, applied slowly. Days, not hours.
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The fish
Salmon farmed, mostly Scottish. Mackerel and eel landed off Ardglass. Trout from a farm inland, not far away.
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Food safety
SALSA certified. Member of Food NI. Hygiene rating to be confirmed before it is published here.
Taste it for yourself.
Sliced salmon, whole sides, gift boxes, trout, mackerel and seasonal eel. Chilled delivery across the UK and Ireland, or collect from Harbour Road.