Who are we?

Mollans started out as an honesty shed in Shawbost in 2018. We are Rachel and Julie Child, 2 people who came over to this amazing island in 2017 with a desire to become part of our community. 

In 2019 we built the Mollans Rainbow Shed next to our home where our daughter joined us for work experience.  Having listened to our previous fish and chip customers we decided to build a chip shop and sell our wonderful hot food.  Due to ongoing illness with Julie we have had to end the Rainbow Shed goodies to concentrate on the fish and chips and allow her time to recoup.  When we opened the Rainbow honesty shed we were the first one on the Isle of Lewis, with only one other in Harris. Now there are lots of honesty boxes with cakes and sweet treats available all over the islands.  We have one very good one "Busy Bees" honesty shed in our village so you can still pick up some treats but just not from us sadly.  

Why the rainbow?

As you arrive at our home you will see the Pride Flag dancing in the wind.  The flag not only has the usual pride colours but also colours signifying transgender, Black Lives Matter and Asexual. 

The point of the flag is to symbolise unity, understanding and tolerance.  We are a safe pace for everyone to come to.  We do not care what colour you are, what your religious beliefs may be, what your gender or sexuality is or anything else really that is none of our business.  We only stipulate one rules ... BE KIND.  Everyone can do that can't they?

Home Made

Pride is not just the flag as above.  Pride is what we feel every time we send out a meal or offer a seat in our summer house to get out of the elements.  We make everything from scratch.  Our fish and chip batter is made to our own secret recipe.  We do not use pre-packed low quality ingredients.  This way we know EXACTLY what is in our food.  

Ethics of Palm Oil

Since doing extensive research when we first started out into the ethics of Palm Oil, whether claimed as "sustainable" or otherwise, we quickly realised that we did not want to be any part of it.  Most margarines used by bakers contain palm oil, as do a majority of biscuits and cakes.  In order for us to remove all palm oil from our cooking means that we use higher quality ingredients like butter or coconut oil etc.  

Allergies and dietary requirements

We have always taken great care with our ingredients to ensure there is little to no chance of cross contamination.  We try to make as much of our food Gluten free as possible. There are a lot of people unable to get fish and chips if they have a gluten intolerance so we made the effort to be as inclusive as we can be.

With Natasha's Law becoming law in late 2021 allergen labelling became even more strict and that can only ever be a good thing.  When we sell you your fish and chips we are able to give you a full ingredient list for any product. This is a legal requirement.  In addition to this there is an allergen folder which details the ingredients of all of our products available for you to look through at any point.  Natasha's Law also makes it easier to make informed choices for those of you with an intolerance to a particular ingredient which is not one of the 14 main Allergens.  With Owen's law maybe becoming law this year we are ahead of the game and have changed our menu layout so that you can see instantly which allergens may be present in each food option.

If you have any specific questions or requests then please contact us.

Furry and feathery family members

As well as Rachel, Julie, Shannon and Emily there is a plethora of various animals/birds which form part of our family. 

We have 3 cats - Molly and Marty (Black and white) were born in our bedroom wardrobe to a feral cat and stayed.  Mumma cat did stay too but she sadly disappeared a year later.  We also have Haggis - a brown tabby who was also a stray.  We found him at about 10 weeks of age - a bag of bones and stinky fur.  We think maybe his Mum had died and he was only days from starvation.  

We have 4 Sprocker spaniels - Bonnie who is almost 4, Bracken who is 1 and a half, Belle who is 8 months old and our newest addition Betty who is 10 weeks old.  We are lucky that the sandy beach is only 400 yards from Mollans and she gets plenty of play time on it.

We also have a flock of chickens who give us plenty of eggs, some of which are usually for sale in the summer house.

Finally there are 2 areas with our ducks - the enclosed area is the where Irene, Alan and Norma the call ducks lives.  The other area has our little group of Runner ducks/Saxony some of whom are successful in rearing clutches.

We look forward to welcoming you,

Rachel & Julie