"You can go yourself! It will be some old fella with a tin bath in a shed out the back". Well I did go myself, the place in question was the Celtic seaweed baths at Standhill in Co Sligo. Far from being located in a shed, the baths are housed in a modern leisure complex, with private rooms containing claw foot tubs filled with hot seawater and of course seaweed. The heat releases the seaweed oil and the water quickly takes on a consistency not unlike wallpaper paste, it was very relaxing and it did me a world of good. Its great to read in the Mourne Observer that Newcastle may soon have its own baths, so perhaps seaweed harvesting will again take place along the Mourne coastline. The high tidal range and rocky shoreline favours the cultivation of seaweed. The remnants of a thriving wrack farm can still be seen at Mill bay, with field boundaries stretching far out into the sea, apparently fooling a low flying Pilot into believing that he had discovered a lost civilisation. He wasn't totally wrong, for in the past these underwater plots would have been farmed as intensively as the hillside fields. Seaweed fertilizer was crucial to the success of a harvest and the rights to collect it would have been closely guarded. As a winter fodder its nutritional value has been shown to be almost as good as hay. Its collection on the shore and distribution inland also favoured the movement of contraband. Seaweed ashes or kelp could be used as a preservative for cheese and meat or traded as valuable ingredient for the production of soap and glass. There is a long history of the use of seaweed for medicine and nutrition in many cultures including our own, the health industry is again waking up to the benefits of seaweed extracts. If confidence in the quality of the water in the Irish sea was restored, than perhaps the cultivation of the seaweed along our shores could once again make a significant contribution to our livelihoods.