Blackthorn Salt
Using centuries-old traditions and modern knowledge to create natural, sustainable salt crystals, Blackthorn Salt is made from 100% west coast sea water and nothing else. The sea water is slowly trickled through the country’s only graduation thorn towers, with the wild west coast winds evaporating the liquid, resulting in beautiful and unique crystal flakes. The process has nothing added, with no seeding and no bleaching, leaving only the taste of the sea, the winds and the thorns.
Here, Whirly Marshall, co-founder of Blackthorn Salt, tell us a little more about the history of the business, and discusses the importance of appreciating what we have available right on our doorstep.
Scottish Food & Drink September 2026
What's the story behind Blackthorn Salt – do you remember the moment it went from the initial spark of an idea to reality?
Although we began trading in 2020, Blackthorn was really the result of decades of research and a natural evolution of our experience within the family’s 150-year-old salt-importing business – alongside a desire to make a salt we could be proud of, using methods that work with the Scottish climate.
Gregorie, Blackthorn's co-founder, has a deep knowledge of the world of salt and architecture, and coupled with my obsessive interest in sustainability and history, and our absolute love of food, together we ignited the spark that would eventually become Blackthorn Salt.
What was the moment you knew the thorn tower concept could work in the Ayrshire coast?
We drew inspiration from a salt-making technique that had evolved around the rock-brine springs of Germany and Poland by the 17th century, but had largely stopped producing salt by the 1960s. Crucially, those towers had never been used with seawater before, so there was no one to ask for advice and no blueprint to follow.
The only way to know whether it could work on the Ayrshire coast was to build it and try. Making that very first batch was therefore quite a moment and, if we’re honest, something of a relief!
We’re still learning every day, and much of what the original tower has taught us was carried into the sister tower, completed this year. For example, we refined the design to create greater surface area without vastly increasing its footprint, while also finding ways to use less concrete in its construction.
How is the landscape around you – from the local community to land, sea and hills – reflected in your product?
The West Coast of Scotland is our backdrop, our history and our inspiration. Salt has been part of this coastline for centuries; the historic pans at Newton, Craigie and Alyson and the preserved Maryburgh Houses nearby are still here to remind us of it. We feel enormously honoured to pick up that thread and relight the mantle of salt production on the Ayrshire coast, albeit in our own rather unusual way.
Our Thorn Towers stand beside the sea, where the wind and sun do 90% of the method, gently concentrating 26,000 litres of Scottish seawater into just 2,000 litres of rich brine, taking it from around 3.5% to 20% salinity. Only then does it make its way to our pan house, where our salters slowly grow the beautiful crystals, carefully retaining the naturally occurring minerals of Scottish seawater and the tannins gathered from the blackthorn along the way.
That distinctive mineral balance begins right here, in the waters off our coast, so Blackthorn simply wouldn’t be Blackthorn without this particular bit of coastline.
When a chef or home cook opens a tub of Blackthorn Salt, what part of the story do you most want them to taste?
For all the story behind Blackthorn, what matters most to us is what happens when it reaches the food. We’ve always understood that, however fascinating our method might be, if the salt didn’t taste wonderful, the rest would be rather beside the point. So we’ve focused on making the finished crystals everything we look for in a salt, and more.
Chefs were among the first to really embrace Blackthorn, which has given us the enormous privilege of asking them directly why they choose it again and again. The answer has always been much the same: its flavour profile. We work carefully to retain and balance Blackthorn’s naturally occurring minerals, including calcium, potassium and magnesium, each with a part to play across the five basic tastes – salty, sweet, sour, bitter and umami. Alongside the tannins gathered from the blackthorn itself, that balance brings umami and a wonderful completeness to flavour, greater intensity, and a taste that lasts and lasts long after the mouthful is swallowed.
What do you hope the next generation finds when they look back at what Blackthorn Salt started in 2019?
I think we would hope they see Blackthorn as proof that looking backwards and moving forwards don’t have to be opposites. Gregorie and I hope that we have encapsulated the best of the past with some of the wonders of today's know-how to make a salt ‘of’ the world as well as ‘for’ the world. And if our slightly unusual way of doing things encourages someone else to question the norm and have a go at their own idea, then we would be just beyond thrilled!
What does ‘Scottish food and drink’ mean to you, beyond geography, and how does that translate into the salt?
For us, Scottish food and drink is about appreciating what we have on ourdoorstep, and putting the care and skill into making the very best of it. We see that all around us – producers doing extraordinary things with Scottish meat, seafood, dairy, grains and vegetables, often bringing generations of knowledge together with a very modern instinct to experiment and do things better.
Blackthorn is our own expression of that. We work with Scottish seawater, west coast wind and sun, and an old method given new life. And perhaps the loveliest part is that the circle continues; Blackthorn then finds its way into the hands of other Scottish makers, helping bring out the very best in what they create. It makes our salt feel like a small part of a much bigger Scottish food story.
