History & Craft

Our Story:

In the 1800’s, the Hanlon brothers, Michael and Paddy, were fishermen in the small coastal town of Omeath, Co. Louth. They faced adversity, as potatoes were the staple diet for the majority of the population and fish was not regarded as real food. The brothers had the ambition to make their passion for fish a success and identified the Pale as a potential market.

In 1845, they decided to set up their first fish shop in Moore Street, Dublin. This gamble paid off and they became known across Dublin as top quality fishmongers. Their success was further highlighted when referenced in James Joyce’s world famous book Ulysses. Five generations later and Hanlon’s Smokehouse remains faithful to the original recipe - ‘hand fillet the freshest salmon, add a pinch of salt, a little smoke and let time take its time’.

At Hanlon’s Smokehouse we have a long established working relationship with leading hotels, restaurants and Michelin-starred chefs. We place a strong emphasis on providing a traditional service while striving to meet the ever-changing demands of our clients.

Our Smoking Process:

The salmon arrives overnight from carefully selected sustainable farms based in the freshest wild Atlantic seas. Each salmon is inspected to ensure only the highest quality are hand filleted, pin boned and smoked. Our traditional method is to lightly salt each side for 5 hours, after which any excess salt is washed off before smoking. Our master smokers, Michael and Paul, who between them have over 70 years’ experience, carefully blend the flavor of the wood, the right quantity of smoke and the exact amount of time to produce our signature smoked salmon, nothing more is added. The salmon is placed in Irelands only zero emission kiln, where it is lightly cold smoked for 7 hours. The resulting smoked salmon is smooth textured with the natural flavours of the wood and salmon combining to produce a product that is unique to Hanlon’s Smokehouse since 1845.

The 100% pure Beech wood used for smoking is sourced from sustainable forests.

Our salmon is smoked to order only and is delivered within 24 to 48 hours of leaving our kiln. We have never and never will freeze our salmon either before or after smoking as quality is not something we are willing to comprise on.

Our core beliefs, which underline our smoking process are:

• To only smoke the freshest fish
• To never use frozen fish
• To only use 100% wood to smoke our salmon

Explore our past in pictures: