Achill Island Sea Salt is an award-winning food product, with both Blás na hEireann and Great Taste accolades under its belt. This success was born from the humble beginnings of a 10-litre pot in Marjorie and Kieran O’Malley’s kitchen.
The husband and wife team decided to start making sea salt in their Achill Island home after Marjorie watched a documentary about salt production from the Irish Sea in Wales, which sparked the question: why could this not be done from Atlantic waters?
When she mentioned this to Kieran, he said that there had been a salt factory on the island in the 1820s. After months of research, in the summer of 2013 they took a leap of faith and made their first commercial batch of sea salt, bringing it to a local country market.
“We were surprised,” reflects Marjorie, “in the country market they seemed to really like it. The first week we brought it and the following week there were more people looking for it. Then Kieran decided to take one to Kelly’s Butchers in Newport.”
Achill Island Sea Salt.
Onwards and upwards
From there the salt went on to be sold in Café Rua in Castlebar and Kai Café and Restaurant in Galway. Having made something of a name for itself, Achill Island Sea Salt was featured on Ear to the Ground, a great boost for the then start-up business.
“They pushed us into a new zone,” says Marjorie, “we had bigger orders and that Christmas was a bit hectic. We were making salt in the middle of the night, getting up to stir pots.
“We felt we had to move out of the kitchen. We had to turn off the extractor fan, which was going all the time. It was damaging our kitchen really. It is a corrosive product if you don’t wipe it down. The condensation was full of salt.”
It was decided that Achill Island Sea Salt would move to a cabin, which was designed with the help of Eddie O’Neill from Teagasc. The pots were swapped for shallow trays, more efficient for producing salt, and a new workflow was designed – combining the age-old process of desalination with modern technology.
Successful salt
In line with a further increase in demand, in 2016 the company once again moved premises, bringing a sea salt factory back to Achill.
Having relocated to a full manufacturing facility with industrial driers and filtering machines, Marjorie and Kieran were advised to allow for a viewing area where people could see the salt-making process. Along with this they added a gift shop and this summer they plan to start doing tours on a larger scale, explains Kieran.
“The idea mostly came from people coming to the door and asking ‘can we come in and see what you’re doing?’ Sure there were days when they couldn’t come in, there could be boxes in the middle of the floor. So we thought, we will make a dedicated tour and shop.”
Irish Country Living received the full tour of the factory. The history of salt-making in Ireland is illustrated clearly on the walls and the process of desalination is explained in detail by Marjorie. The whole building conveys the success of Achill Island Sea Salt, but is there any particular reason why the product has proven to be so popular?
“It doesn’t matter where you get salt, there are going to be very subtle differences in it. With us, the waters are pristine, we get so many storms that the ocean is constantly churned up. But really our hallmark as opposed to some of the other salts is our texture,” he says.
“That’s the way we process it, that’s the way we harvest it. If you crystallise it at a slightly higher temperature it is going to give you a softer crystal, a softer flake. It is very malleable, so you don’t need a grinder.”
Smoked Achill Island Sea Salt.
Homegrown
Really, Achill Island Sea Salt has gone from strength to strength; winning awards, expanding its stockists and range. It is now available in Supervalus in the west and has added a smoked sea salt as a second product.
It too is a true family business. Marjorie still works as an accountant and Kieran retired from teaching last year. With the hectic schedule they have, their three children – Séan, Meabh and Colm – are and were always on hand to help out.
Séan and Meabh both worked in the business full-time for a year and Meabh is currently doing a master’s in food business at University College Cork (UCC).
As well as family being front and centre, so too is their Achill heritage. The island not only lends the gift of its pristine waters, but too its recognisable brand all over the world, explains Marjorie.
“Even local people have said to me, ‘it is a God send’, because people from Achill went all over the world, they emigrated. So if someone is going to visit their relations in London or Scotland, they can bring the salt, because it is a piece of Achill.”
Read more
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Achill Island Sea Salt is an award-winning food product, with both Blás na hEireann and Great Taste accolades under its belt. This success was born from the humble beginnings of a 10-litre pot in Marjorie and Kieran O’Malley’s kitchen.
The husband and wife team decided to start making sea salt in their Achill Island home after Marjorie watched a documentary about salt production from the Irish Sea in Wales, which sparked the question: why could this not be done from Atlantic waters?
When she mentioned this to Kieran, he said that there had been a salt factory on the island in the 1820s. After months of research, in the summer of 2013 they took a leap of faith and made their first commercial batch of sea salt, bringing it to a local country market.
“We were surprised,” reflects Marjorie, “in the country market they seemed to really like it. The first week we brought it and the following week there were more people looking for it. Then Kieran decided to take one to Kelly’s Butchers in Newport.”
Achill Island Sea Salt.
Onwards and upwards
From there the salt went on to be sold in Café Rua in Castlebar and Kai Café and Restaurant in Galway. Having made something of a name for itself, Achill Island Sea Salt was featured on Ear to the Ground, a great boost for the then start-up business.
“They pushed us into a new zone,” says Marjorie, “we had bigger orders and that Christmas was a bit hectic. We were making salt in the middle of the night, getting up to stir pots.
“We felt we had to move out of the kitchen. We had to turn off the extractor fan, which was going all the time. It was damaging our kitchen really. It is a corrosive product if you don’t wipe it down. The condensation was full of salt.”
It was decided that Achill Island Sea Salt would move to a cabin, which was designed with the help of Eddie O’Neill from Teagasc. The pots were swapped for shallow trays, more efficient for producing salt, and a new workflow was designed – combining the age-old process of desalination with modern technology.
Successful salt
In line with a further increase in demand, in 2016 the company once again moved premises, bringing a sea salt factory back to Achill.
Having relocated to a full manufacturing facility with industrial driers and filtering machines, Marjorie and Kieran were advised to allow for a viewing area where people could see the salt-making process. Along with this they added a gift shop and this summer they plan to start doing tours on a larger scale, explains Kieran.
“The idea mostly came from people coming to the door and asking ‘can we come in and see what you’re doing?’ Sure there were days when they couldn’t come in, there could be boxes in the middle of the floor. So we thought, we will make a dedicated tour and shop.”
Irish Country Living received the full tour of the factory. The history of salt-making in Ireland is illustrated clearly on the walls and the process of desalination is explained in detail by Marjorie. The whole building conveys the success of Achill Island Sea Salt, but is there any particular reason why the product has proven to be so popular?
“It doesn’t matter where you get salt, there are going to be very subtle differences in it. With us, the waters are pristine, we get so many storms that the ocean is constantly churned up. But really our hallmark as opposed to some of the other salts is our texture,” he says.
“That’s the way we process it, that’s the way we harvest it. If you crystallise it at a slightly higher temperature it is going to give you a softer crystal, a softer flake. It is very malleable, so you don’t need a grinder.”
Smoked Achill Island Sea Salt.
Homegrown
Really, Achill Island Sea Salt has gone from strength to strength; winning awards, expanding its stockists and range. It is now available in Supervalus in the west and has added a smoked sea salt as a second product.
It too is a true family business. Marjorie still works as an accountant and Kieran retired from teaching last year. With the hectic schedule they have, their three children – Séan, Meabh and Colm – are and were always on hand to help out.
Séan and Meabh both worked in the business full-time for a year and Meabh is currently doing a master’s in food business at University College Cork (UCC).
As well as family being front and centre, so too is their Achill heritage. The island not only lends the gift of its pristine waters, but too its recognisable brand all over the world, explains Marjorie.
“Even local people have said to me, ‘it is a God send’, because people from Achill went all over the world, they emigrated. So if someone is going to visit their relations in London or Scotland, they can bring the salt, because it is a piece of Achill.”
Read more
‘I started Achill Lamb in order to survive’ - Farming for Nature winner
Converting our food into jobs
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