One kiln behind the harbour wall
In 1923 our great-grandfather began smoking fish in a single kiln in Ardglass. More than a hundred years and four generations later, that kiln is still standing, and we still smoke the slow way.
Photograph: the original 1923 kiln, still standing behind the harbour wallA harbour town, and one kiln
Ardglass is a harbour town on the County Down coast. In 1923 our great-grandfather started smoking fish here, in one kiln tucked behind the harbour wall.
He settled on a way of curing and smoking that the family has kept ever since: a slow cure, taken over days rather than hours, and smoke from oak. That is the family recipe, and it is the one we still follow.
We are still gathering the details of those first years from the family and from the office. As we find them, they will be told here.
Slow cured over days, not hours.
Our great-grandfather’s name and early story, being gathered
It is still standing
The kiln from 1923 still stands behind the harbour wall on Harbour Road. It is where all of this started, and it is why you will find a small kiln drawn into our mark.
One family, one recipe
Four generations of the family have kept the kilns going. The recipe has passed from each to the next, and so has the habit of doing things properly.
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1923
Our great-grandfather
Begins smoking fish in one kiln behind the harbour wall in Ardglass.
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Second generation
The recipe is handed down
The kiln and the family recipe pass to the next generation. Details being gathered
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Third generation
Declan
Runs the business and our trade relationships. He has answered the main line for forty years, and trade customers in Belfast and Glasgow know his voice.
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Fourth generation
The fourth generation
Declan’s son or daughter, now bringing the smokehouse to people at home, with chilled delivery across the UK and Ireland, and this new website.
Beside the family, there is Paddy. He has been at the kilns for forty years and is our head smoker. Much of what comes out of the smoke is down to him.
Our navy logo, with its arc of lettering and plain wee fish, was drawn in the 1980s. We have redrawn it with care, keeping everything Declan would recognise, and added the kiln.
Out of the office drawers
We are going through the office for old photographs and ledgers. What we find will go here, alongside a photograph of Declan from around 1998.
Archive photograph: Declan, about 1998The same slow way
We cure the fish slowly, over days rather than hours, following the family recipe. Then it goes into the smoke over oak. It takes longer than it needs to by modern standards, and we are content with that.
Photograph: Paddy in the smokehousePaddy’s own words on the smoke and the cure will go here.
Paddy, head smoker
Where our fish comes from
We would rather be plain about this. Our suppliers are people we have trusted for a long time, not the cheapest boat.
- SalmonFarmed, mostly in Scotland.
- MackerelLanded locally off Ardglass.
- EelLanded locally off Ardglass, and only in season.
- TroutFrom a farm inland, not far from Ardglass.
Supplier names to follow, from Paddy
We are SALSA certified for food safety and keep it up to date, and we are members of Food NI.