Shellfish
Langoustines:
Our langoustines are landed by local fisherman Ralph Newell, who fishes with creels in the upper reaches of Loch Fyne. Known locally simply as ‘prawns’, the langoustines live in burrows in the hard bed of the loch, at around ten fathoms (c.18.3m) or deeper. Supply is generally consistent and of good size and quality, as the immature crustaceans escape through the mesh of the creels.
Ralph cannot supply all our needs, so we also deal with Isle of Sheil Fisheries near Oban and with Sco-Fro at Fort William.
Both are family-owned operations and only supply us with creel-caught fish from local boats.
Butter Clams and Cockles:
These are hand raked around the more sheltered shores of Argyll. Only mature shellfish are taken, and there is no lasting harm done to the seabed. Hand raking is a hard and lonely job. Supplies can be inconsistent but are always worth the wait.
Queen Scallops:
Landed mainly at West Loch Tarbert. Gordon Goldsworthy grows them in lantern nets from natural spat collected around the coast; a real local delicacy. Like cultured oysters and mussels, there are no adverse effects on marine life. Rather the opposite.
No chemicals or other pollutants are involved and the scallops feed naturally on plankton.
King Scallops:
Supplied to us by Kenny MacNab in Tarbert and Archie Macmillan in Campbeltown. Kenny has two dive boats that operate around the coast of the Mull Of Kintyre. Archie has
a beautiful traditional wooden dredger ‘Deliverance’ that fishes south of the Mull. These are consistently the best scallops we have ever come across.
Lobster:
Mainly from Orkney, our lobster are supplied in season by John Brailsford and his brother Sanda. The season runs mainly from May to October, after which the lobster are held in tanks or cages for the winter market while the wild stocks lie low in deep water.