The Bay

Aoife Kearney, salt-maker, photographed against Bannow Bay at golden hour.
Aoife Kearney · 2025

The salt-maker

Aoife Kearney runs the pans.

Aoife trained as a chef. She worked for five years in two Dublin kitchens, the second of which used her father’s salt as a finishing salt and was where she first watched a flake do its work on someone else’s plate.

She took over the harvest from her father in 2021. He still rakes once a week through August, when the salt is coming off three pans at once, and walks the strand most other mornings.

The team is two people through the harvest months, three at the height of summer when an order has to go out, and Aoife on her own through the winter pack-and-ship. Off-season, she develops the recipe cards that go in the gift boxes.

Heavy storm clouds rolling in over Hook Head peninsula.
Hook Head · February squall

The weather

The salt is made by the bay.

This is the part of the operation we do not control. We pay attention to the weather, draw the water on the right tide, rake the pans when they are ready, and try not to get in the way.

Three weeks of dry weather is generous. Two is more usual. Some summers the harvest is half what it could be, and we sell out earlier, which is what happens when nothing is forced.

Aoife Kearney, salt-maker, photographed against Bannow Bay at golden hour.
Aoife Kearney · 2025

The salt-maker

Aoife Kearney runs the pans.

Aoife trained as a chef. She worked for five years in two Dublin kitchens, the second of which used her father’s salt as a finishing salt and was where she first watched a flake do its work on someone else’s plate.

She took over the harvest from her father in 2021. He still rakes once a week through August, when the salt is coming off three pans at once, and walks the strand most other mornings.

The team is two people through the harvest months, three at the height of summer when an order has to go out, and Aoife on her own through the winter pack-and-ship. Off-season, she develops the recipe cards that go in the gift boxes.

Heavy storm clouds rolling in over Hook Head peninsula.
Hook Head · February squall

The weather

The salt is made by the bay.

This is the part of the operation we do not control. We pay attention to the weather, draw the water on the right tide, rake the pans when they are ready, and try not to get in the way.

Three weeks of dry weather is generous. Two is more usual. Some summers the harvest is half what it could be, and we sell out earlier, which is what happens when nothing is forced.

Order

Take some home.

The salt is sold in three formats from this site. Posted within five working days from Wellington Bridge. The harvest sells out in February most years.

Visit

Or write first.

The pans are working ground, not a visitor centre. We do not host walk-ins. By appointment, we welcome chefs and trade buyers between June and September.