Mallaig

Kippers and a Working Port

Jaffy's has been smoking fish on Station Road since 1944, and calls itself the last traditional kipper yard left in Mallaig. Its oak-smoked kippers were named Great Taste Supreme Champion in 2021, and the food writer Charles Campion called them "buttery, juicy and full of flavour. These kippers should be coming to a breakfast plate near you soon." The shop sells its own smoked salmon and shellfish along with Scottish speciality foods and gifts, near the harbour.

Mallaig is a working fishing and ferry port at the western end of the A830, its houses climbing the rocky slopes behind the harbour. Herring built it — in the 1960s the town could claim to be the busiest herring port in Europe — but overfishing and a four-year ban saw that off by the mid-1970s, and prawns now make up most of what is landed. In summer the harbour can see up to twenty-five ferry movements a day, which keeps the waterfront busy with work rather than scenery.

Seafood from Harbour to Plate

The seafood follows the boats onto the plates. The Cornerstone, on Davies Brae, faces the harbour and serves langoustines, mussels, fish and chips, and a recent diner reported monkfish roasted on the bone. The Chlachain Inn, which describes itself as "the wee pub with food & rooms," takes its fish daily from local merchant Andy Race and its meat from Lochalsh Butchers on Skye; the mussels come recommended. There is live music most Saturdays and a speed quiz on Thursdays.

The Tea Garden, above the harbour, has coal fires and a flower garden and puts out Mallaig kippers, prawn rolls, sherried herring, pints of prawns, cream scones and shortbread. It is dog-friendly to the point of keeping dog ice cream. For something quicker, Bloom & Graze beside the station does filled bagels, grazeboxes, strawberry tarts and coffee from Birch Coffee on Skye.

Churches and Hill Circuits

Two churches sit above the water. St Columba's Church of Scotland, built in 1903 on a knoll, looks out towards the Small Isles and holds an Abbott & Co window of Christ walking on water. The Roman Catholic Church of St Patrick, a plain white-harled building of 1935 by Reginald Fairlie, has a squat tower and an octagonal Germanic bellcote under an ogee lead roof.

For a walk, the signposted circuit to Mallaig Bheag climbs from the East Bay car park to a viewpoint 110 metres up, with the harbour and the Small Isles laid out below, and returns by road in about an hour. The longer Loch an Nostarie circuit carries on over rugged moorland to a loch fringed with water lilies; the middle section can be extremely boggy, and a Second World War Bren gun carrier, abandoned during work on the water supply, still sits out on the hill.

Pier, Railway and Ferries

The railway made the modern town. Lord Lovat built the first pier in 1846 to give work to people left destitute by the potato famine, and the West Highland Line reached the harbour in 1901 — the Mallaig delegate, Archie MacLellan, had given his evidence to the parliamentary committee in Gaelic. Fish could be loaded straight from the quay into the wagons. The station is now the end of the line, and CalMac ferries leave from beside it for Armadale on Skye, forty-five minutes across, and for Canna, Eigg, Muck and Rum.

The Story Beside the Station

By the station, the Heritage Centre keeps the maritime and railway story; its 2026 exhibition shows Rob Fairley's drawings of the people who still work the pier.