About Loch Duart Salmon

The northwest coast of Sutherland is at the very tip of Britain's mainland.

The Loch Duart rearing operations are based at Scourie - a centre of Scottish salmon production for hundreds of years, where salmon rearing is now the prime occupation and skills are handed down from generation to generation.

Badcall Bay is just off the coast road sout of Scourie and the Badcall Salmon House resting at the water's edge. Built in the 19th Century, Badcall Salmon House is the headquarters of Loch Duart Ltd and the nerve centre of their operation.

Protecting The Environment
They are taking further steps to protect the environment with a pioneering integrated aquaculture initiative which involves growing sea urchins and seaweed alongside their Freedom Food salmon.

Sea urchins live comfortably alongside their fish, feeding on leftover fish food and cleaning algae off the sides of the pens. The variety of sea urchin being grown by Loch Duart is a native species called Paracentrotus lividus and is a much-prized delicacy.

Seaweed feeds on the nutrients that even the most sustainable salmon farming may add to sea lochs. The glory of integrated aquaculture is 'nutrient balancing', which is missing from most monoculture. Two types of indigenous seaweed are being grown at Loch Duart - Palmaria palmate (Dulse), often described as 'a vegetarian oyster' and Laminaria saccharina (Sugar Kelp). Both varieties are a delicious source of important minerals.

'Balancing' means removing at least as much nitrogen and phosphates as are put in by the salmon farm. In this way, we will be able to demonstrate that the farm has a neutral or even positive environmental impact. One of the benefits of the seaweed growth is carbon sequestration.

Capricorn Investment Group a US private equity firm, which counts eBay founder Jeff Skoll among its investors, is taking a minority stake in Loch Duart Farm


Loch Duart is now looking to capitalise on new opportunities in sustainable aquaculture, such as commercial production of sea urchins – which are considered a delicacy in European markets – and seaweed for the cosmetics industry. In 1980, only 9% of the fish consumed came from aquaculture, now it is 43%.

The salmon farming industry is an important contributor to the Scottish economy, providing 8,500 full and part-time jobs, often in remote locations and contributing more than £197m into the Scottish economy.

Scotland exported more than 12 million salmon to 60 countries and is the third-largest salmon producer in the world with a 10% global market share.