Irish Raw Milk Cheese: 8 Great Producers Capturing Ireland's Terroir

This week (23-29 June) marks a week-long celebration of Irish Raw Milk Cheeses, let's talk about it...

Jun 24, 2024

As an agricultural economy, the discussion around Irish food - and deciphering what Ireland’s cuisine is - lands so often at source, our land and sea, and the skilled hands at work. From grass-fed beef farmers and grain growers to mountain lamb herders, oyster cultivators and lobster pot purveyors. Brewers of black stuff and distillers of uisce beatha to bread bakers and craft butchers.

Our food tells a story of this island’s unique terroir and our best products are the ones with the least steps from source and little interference. And then, there are the cherished cheesemakers. Our dairy is second-to-none and so, naturally, our butter, yoghurt and cream is fantastic, but our cheese is properly champion.

Irish farmhouse cheese sits at the confluence of pasture, place and people and our cheesemakers have been creating a championship name for Irish cheese, at home and internationally, over the last half century.

Pasteurisation of course has its place, but Irish raw milk cheeses demonstrate the terroir of the lush landscape like few other products, capturing the essence of grass-fed milk without the heat treatment that can often dull the innate and subtle flavours. Preserving raw milk by making cheese is also the ancient way so it really does deliver a connection to place and an appreciation of artisanal Irish practice.

Here are eight Irish raw milk cheesemakers you should know about - each one capturing the Irish landscape with their unique product(s)

Mike’s Fancy Cheese Co., Newtownards, Co. Down

Mike Thomson is the new face at the frontier of raw milk cheesemaking in Northern Ireland. He makes Young Buck, a Stilton-like blue cheese, using single herd raw cow’s milk from Smyth McCann’s Holstein Friesians in Newtownards. Young Buck is the boldest blue in the land, blue-veined and intense like regular Stilton but younger (aged at least 12 weeks) and an ideal meeting point of crumbly and creamy with a distinct peppery, salty taste with hints of tropical and funk. Visit Mike at his cheese shop and deli on Little Donegall Street in Belfast.

Knockanore Farmhouse Cheese, Co. Waterford

Looking for a cheddar with character rather than vague chew? Knockanore Farmhouse Cheese is made by the Lonergan family in West Waterford where they have a herd of 180 pedigree Friesians, and don’t supplement their production with any other milk. The name Knockanore is an anglicisation of ‘Cnoc an Oir’ which means ‘Hill of Gold’ in Irish. Their core range features a trio of raw cow’s milk cheddars: a Mature White, a Mature Red and an Irish Applewood-smoked cheddar, which they smoke themselves (we’ve been to Eamonn’s cheesemaking facility and seen the big beast itself!) using oak sourced locally from Lismore. We love all three for their differences in taste, but if you like that processed Applewood-smoked cheese you can get in big supermarkets we implore you to switch it out for this raw milk, Irish equivalent — you’ll never look back.

Hegarty Cheese, Co. Cork

Dan Hegarty farms 150 acres in a village called Whitechurch, just north of Cork City, and is coming up on 25 years as an Irish farmhouse cheesemaker. Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Enjelvin is their head cheesemaker and so it’s no surprise their signature is a sensational nutty, Apline-style cheese, aged from nine months upwards. Templegall is the English version of the Irish name for the village in which it’s made: “An Teampall Geal" (another anglicisation example — can you tell the land has been colonised?) If you love Gruyère or Comté you will be captivated by this Irish equivalent, which was also recently unveiled as the Supreme Champion at the 2024 Irish Cheese Awards. Organised by Cáis Ireland but independently-judged, this is the second time Templegall won this accolade — the first being in 2021.

St. Tola (Inagh Farmhouse), Co. Clare

You might think you don’t like goat cheese but once you try the creamy, fresh and tangy flavour of Siobhan Ní Ghairbhith’s St. Tola Farmhouse Cheese you will be convinced. Inagh Farmhouse produces both pasteurised and non-pasteurised cheeses, with the scale of the Saint Tola range running from spreadable ‘Divine’ goat’s cream cheese to a crumbly, Greek-style, both natural and marinated in oil with chilli or garden herbs. The core range consists of stunning goat’s cheese logs, particularly the ash-rolled ‘Karst’, developed to reflect the karst landscape of the stunning Burren region in which it comes from, and the petite pucks of Crottin-style cheese, which come plain or ash-rolled.

Coolatin Cheddar, Co. Wicklow

Tom Burgess makes his cloth-bound cheddar solely using summer milk, when the cows are grazing outside on clover-rich pasture only. Based at Knockheen House outside Tullow, where West Wicklow meets Carlow, he offers two ages: the regular, 12 month-aged, and a Mature which is aged up to two years. The flavour of this cheddar is sweet and fruity when young, developing into more complex nutty notes as it ages.

The Lost Valley Dairy Co., Co. Cork

Mike and Darcie have a young family, a newborn farm and produce a pair of young raw milk cheeses you just can’t stop eating. They have a small, mixed herd of native heritage breeds - Irish Shorthorns and Droimeanns - from which they produce two main raw milk cheeses: Carraignamuc, a Tomme-style semi-hard cheese, aged less than five months, with a natural rind and a lactic, earthy, tangy taste; and Sobhriste, a Caerphilly-style, crumbly-textured cheese which is aged for six weeks and has a fresh, buttery flavour.

Corleggy Cheese, Co. Cavan

Established in Cavan by German-born Silke Kropp in 1985 and now run alongside her son, Tom, Corleggy makes the full complement: goat’s, cow’s and sheep’s cheeses, using milk sourced from neighbouring farms. Must-tries are their Irish take on camembert called Cavanbert and their signature, and namesake cheese, a harder style of washed rind goat’s cheese, while they have also introduced softer, young goat’s cheese logs, too.

Leitrim Hill Creamery, Co. Leitrim

An all-female team (Lisa, Gypsy and Richelle) has brought two new cheeses to the market in recent years, each named for the landscape with which they come from: a pure goat's raw milk called ‘Cnoc Liatrom; (Leitrim Hill, in English) and a soft, lactic cheese which is a mix of cow and goat’s milk called ‘Sliabh an Iarainn’ (Iron Mountain, in English, named after the nearby park part of the Cuilcagh Mountain range).

Where to buy?

Indie Fude and Mike’s Fancy Cheese Co. in Northern Ireland
Sheridan’s Cheesemongers in various shops around Ireland (including counters in select Dunnes Stores and Ardkeen Stores in Waterford)
The Little Cheese Shop in Dingle
The Cheese Press Ennistymon
Loose Canon and Fallon & Byrne in Dublin city centre
The Counter Deli in Letterkenny and The Blue Goat in Ramelton in Donegal

Irish Raw Milk Cheese week is a seven-day event (23-29 June 2024) organised by the Irish Raw Milk Cheese Presidia. The sophomore outing of the annual event, the aim is promoting Irish raw milk cheeses to a wider audience through the media and in restaurants as well as promotional events at select retail stores and farmers markets across the country.