St Tola Irish Goat Cheese

Around 300 goats of the Saanen, Toggenburg and British Alpine breeds live on 65 acres of herb rich pasture, grazing wild flowers such as buttercups, meadowsweet and wild garlic, and eating hay grown on the farm through the winter. About 200 of them are milked twice a day. Cheese has been made in this townland since the early 1980s, and Siobhan Ni Ghairbhith has run the business since 1999.

Everything is still made by hand in small batches in the dairy on the farm. The range runs from the fresh St Tola Log and the ash coated log to a Greek style cheese kept in brine, small crottins, the harder Karst, and jars of cheese in rapeseed oil with chilli, garlic or garden herbs. Cheese can be bought straight from the farm on weekdays, and the farm runs tours that take in the milking parlour and the goats.