Paul McGlynn, proprietor of an oyster farm on the Isle of Skye, has seen sales take off ever since he opened his farm shop and seafood takeaway in the farm’s oyster shed at Carbost on the west coast of the island.
McGlynn was on the verge of giving up the farm, the only one on Skye, after it contracted a form of vibrio in 2011 which went through all his adult oysters and killed over one million of them. “This was a desperate time for the business and we did think at one stage of closing our doors,” he said.
However in a make-or-break decision he decided to open the farm shop, now called The Oyster Shed, and a small visitor area, and he has never looked back.
The oyster farm was established by McGlynn’s father-in-law, fisherman Kenny Bain in 1981. Over the next 27 years Bain steadily expanded the business so that he was producing more than 200,000 Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas). The main markets at that time were local and as part of a cooperative selling to supermarkets.
In 2008, McGlynn took over the day-to-day running of the farm and increased the site capacity to just under 2 million oysters. The aim was to increase sales to the cooperative, but then the disease struck three years later, wiping out a very large proportion of the mature oysters awaiting sale.
The farm shop was opened in April 2012 and consisted of a counter and small table selling oysters, other local shellfish and smoked salmon. New fridges and freezers have since been purchased to increase the number of products that could be stocked, and in 2014 McGlynn added a smoker and hot seafood trailer to further increase the product range on offer.
When SeafoodSource visited The Oyster Shed this summer, CEO Paul McGinnley, described by the business as the shed’s “oyster man,” was busy opening and serving oysters and taking orders for other seafood. “There is a phenomenal demand for oysters,” he said. “I opened 90,000 last year, but where else can you buy them for a pound each (GBP 1.00, USD 1.55, EUR 1.38).”
The farm shop and takeaway are located on the south shore of Loch Harport, where the oysters are grown. Carbost has the advantage of becoming a tourist hub in the summer months due to the nearby presence of the Talisker Distillery. “They (the distillery) were very helpful to me when I started up,” McGinnley said, “and used to send people up.” (The oyster shed is literally a few minutes away up the hill.)
“They (the distillery management) also let me have old posters, etc. during their million pound refit.”
In addition to the company’s own oysters, which are shucked for customers to eat, the farm shop sells fresh crab, lobster, langoustines, mussels, smoked fish and other shellfish and finfish, as well as meats, cheeses, smoked game, pates and terrines, and Isle of Skye ice cream. “If there is anything we do not have then we endeavor to source it for our customers,” McGinnley said.
There are hot and cold seafood menus to choose from. The short hot seafood menu consists of fish bisque, plus scallops, langoustine tails and lobster tails pan fried in garlic butter with chips (fries), while the extensive cold seafood menu has a whole host of items including whisky smoked salmon fillet and pickled herring; some of these items also include chips.
The farm shop and takeaway are open all year round apart from a three-week break in October and the beginning of November.
McGlynn also supplies oysters to a number of well-known local restaurants, including the Three Chimneys which is hoping to get its Michelin star back when its new chef has become established.
Skye is the largest of the Inner Hebridean islands and connected to the west coast of mainland Scotland by a road bridge – there is also a ferry service across by boat. It is a very popular international tourist destination.
