Cork’s salt makers: ‘It’s as local and as fresh as you can get’

Of all the traditional favourites of Irish food – butter, cheese, bacon, salted beef and herrings, black pudding – there’s one ingredient that connects them.

Salt.

Ireland’s prodigious taste for salty things is something quite distinct in the way we have always prepared, preserved, cooked, and eaten food.

The first reason is preservation. Salt draws out moisture, preventing food from spoiling, so it stores better for longer. More salt means better preservation, but the less desirable the taste.

The second reason is taste. We know the disaster an overly liberal application of salt can be to a dish, but applied in just the right amount, it elevates flavour to pitch perfection.

In simple terms, sea salt is made by evaporating off all moisture in seawater until what is left are crystals of pure natural sea salt.

As an island nation, access to sea salt distilled from our ocean waters should, in theory, be plentiful and accessible. But in Ireland’s cool temperate climate, this process is not so easy, which is why, only in the last decade or so, a few intrepid people have given Irish sea salt making a go.

But if it’s so hard to make sea salt in Ireland, where was the salt essential in making many traditional foods for hundreds, even thousands, of years coming from?

In 2020, Nikolah Gilligan, an Irish-based archaeologist and archaeobotanist, conducted experiments to unriddle this conundrum and found seaweed a possible source, saying: “Using experimental archaeology, salt was produced by burning dried seaweed, soaking the ashes and allowing the water to evaporate. The experiment was successful in the production of sodium chloride, and it was found to be a very feasible method of producing salt.”

Referred to as ‘black salt’ from burning the seaweed, this was as close as our ancestors could get to the kind of sea salt we know today.

Fascinating stuff. However, somewhere along the line, this old practice stopped, and table salt became the staple in kitchens for decades - finely ground sodium chloride with added anti-caking agents to keep it free-running.

Then, after decades of nothing but this asinine version of salt, sea salt became trendy. I remember when this happened; like most early food trends, it started with Nigella Lawson. In all her TV shows and cookbooks, Lawson was clear on one thing: if she said salt, she meant Maldon Sea Salt; and, like many of my generation in the early stages of a burgeoning food obsession, I did as I was told.

But then, like the proverbial bus, Cork became home to not one, not two, but three artisan Irish sea salt makers – all in West Cork, each with their own distinct flavour and way of making.

Irish Atlantic Sea Salt, based way out on the Beara Peninsula, was Ireland’s first and only sea salt to launch here in 2010. It came four years before the advent of Fáilte Ireland’s hugely successful Wild Atlantic Way driving route, when West Cork’s reputation as the epicentre of Irish artisan food was at its apex.

Michael and Aileen O’Neill recognised this. They also recognised that when it came to seasoning West Cork’s phenomenal larder of produce to perfection, a local sea salt was missing from the cornucopia. Perfecting their process, they created a pure flaked Irish sea salt which became an instant hit with Irish culinary stars like Darina Allen, who said: “At last there is an Irish sea salt on the market.”

From one side of West Cork to another, and 14 years later, Cork became home to a second sea salt maker, Salt of Kinsale, when they launched their natural Irish sea salt in 2024.

Founder, Billy Hosford, was inspired by a visit to Indonesia years ago, watching people scoop up seawater in clam shells. Over the course of a sunny day, the water would evaporate away, leaving behind pure sea salt.

The simplicity of the process is why Salt of Kinsale uses solar alone, but it takes patience, given the often inconsistent nature of our weather, even in summer.

Billy hand harvests sea water, drawing it up to the flat salt beds housed inside polytunnels. Over five weeks, the water very slowly evaporates, leaving behind rocks of crystalised salt.

For him, the process is more like facilitation than creation, and the less interference, the better.

This dedication to allowing the salt to develop as naturally as possible allows its natural flavour to shine through. It’s true: different salts do have different flavours!

You may have heard of terroir? Mostly associated with wine, it can apply to anything grown on land and refers to the taste of something – be that grapes, beef, apples or potatoes – developing a flavour profile unique to the place where it is grown.

The same can be said of our seas and oceans. This is called merroir. How close or far away from shore, the temperature of the water, salinity, rocky or sandy coastline, seaweed forests, all can affect the taste – the merroir - of water and therefore the salt derived from it.

Pure sea salt from waters collected in different areas will and does taste differently. Methods and rates of evaporation, formation of salt crystals as rocks, flakes or a little of both, also affect how a salt tastes.

This has been the journey of discovery for West Cork Sea Salt, based in Ring near Clonakilty. Established by brother and sister duo, Jen and Geoff Wycherley in spring, 2025, the idea to craft a small batch artisan sea salt business came to them around the Christmas dining table in 2024.

The family home overlooks the sea, yet there they were shaking a generic brand salt all over their festive meal. What if they could make their own from the limitless resource at their door?

Their family have long, storied roots in this small coastal fishing village. Jen and Geoff’s grandfather was something of a pioneer, fishing for and exporting West Cork lobster all around Europe. In many ways producing a sea salt continues that legacy.

They made their first small batch using stainless steel pots and pans in their kitchen, eventually progressing onto a solar system in the summer. They discovered the solar method needs a minimum of 20°C to get effective and time-efficient evaporation going.

This is their summer method, but in the cooler winter months, they revert to boiling in stainless steels vats to achieve the crystallisation process.

This idea of a seasonal process follows through with their water harvests.

West Cork Sea Salt partners with fishermen who harvest seawater for them two miles off Galley Head in deep, cool ocean waters. It’s so pristine, says Jen, there’s barely anything to filter.

Their current batch of sea salt is called Winter Tide, reflecting the season the water was harvested. The next batch, Spring Tide, harvested in March, is in production and available soon.

This dual seasonality of water harvest and process means West Cork Sea Salt is artisan in the truest sense. It takes time, works with the seasons, and no two batches will be exactly the same flavour or texture.

Their salt is a hybrid mix of rocks and flakes with a flavour that is smooth, clean, and bordering on sweet. It doesn’t have the sodium sharpness of some mass-produced salts which allows the natural minerality of West Cork Sea Salt to shine through.

It’s this unique flavour profile that Geoff wants to make the signature of their sea salt. Their ambition is to stand beside some of the household names in food that Clonakilty is known for – Irish Yogurts, Clonakilty Blackpudding, and Clóna Dairy, to name a few.

It’s not an easy task, and they both juggle this enterprise with busy full-time jobs. Why do it?

“It’s our family history,” says Geoff. “Learning about our grandfather when we were younger instilled a mindset within me and Jen to revive that industry within the family.

“We both have full-time jobs that can be stressful at times,” says Jen, “[making sea salt] is an outlet for us both. Watching it grow from something that just was an idea in our family kitchen one evening to having four suppliers now. We’re constantly evolving and growing.

“It’s more of a journey than anything, which is exciting - and we get to do it together, which is great.”

From the tiny village of Ring, West Cork Sea Salt has been spotted as far away as USA and Sweden, connecting people across continents – like the ocean itself.

So why spend a little more on a Cork-made sea salt?

“It’s as local as you can get and it’s as fresh as you can get,” says Geoff – and he’s right.

With Cork’s renowned reputation for its incredible larder of fresh produce and army of artisan food producers, the final finishing flavour on your plate, of course, should be a natural seasoning crafted from the wild briny waters that surround us.

• www.irishatlanticsalt.ie
• www.saltofkinsale.ie
• www.westcorkseasalt.ie