My first bite of Errington’s Farm Corra Linn cheese embraces my taste buds with a beautiful, subtly sweet nuttiness layered over hints of florals. This is cheddar as it’s seldom experienced, made with raw Lacaune sheep’s milk instead of the traditional cow’s. Next up, Bonnington Linn. This time the milk comes from the farm’s goats. It’s tangier than sheep’s milk cheese, as you’d expect with goat’s milk cheese, but I find it satisfyingly earthy and sweet. Finally, I return to sheep’s milk with Lanark Blue, a rebuttal to Roquefort that is simultaneously pure Scottish.
There are plenty of places a cheese lover like me can begin their journey along the Scottish Cheese Trail, but at a short hour’s drive from both Glasgow and Edinburgh, Errington’s Barn Farm Shop & Kitchen in Biggar is the perfect launch point. A day on the farm begins around 4 a.m. for the first milking. Thankfully, visitor hours are more forgiving, and guests can either pre-book farm and cheese-tasting tours or make a reservation to sample the farm’s products at its café, the Barn. I dropped by the Barn for lunch and a cheeseboard, then made my way to the farm shop for provisions to take home. Post-meal, I sauntered along one of the bucolic woodland walks to take the air in, already making plans to book a tour on my next trip so I can meet the goats and sheep responsible for all that exceptional cheese.
What is the Scottish Cheese Trail
The Scottish Cheese Trail was devised in 2002 by Wendy Barrie, chef, writer, and champion of Scotland’s larder, as part of her award-winning Scottish Food Guide website. Where once a handful of cheesemongers were represented, just shy of 30 now make up the trail. It’s a fantastic combination of working dairies, tasting rooms, and cozy farm shops serving exceptional cheeses with a side of rustic charm. When you’re planning a visit to the artisans who host tours and tastings, you’d be wise to book in advance. Though reservations aren’t required, during the height of the season, tour spots disappear quickly.
There are 28 stops on the Scottish Cheese Trail, from Galloway Farmhouse Cheese in the south to Burnside Cheese up north in Orkney.
Photo by Marc Millar
On the trail, you’ll encounter heritage styles like the buttery, nutty, slightly savory, hard Ayrshire Dunlop in the south and the almost citrusy flavor of crumbly, fresh crowdie once made by Highland crofters.
“Crowdie was a traditional cheese,” says Rory Stone, director and cheesemaker at Highland Fine Cheeses. “The Vikings taught us how to make that. Before the [Highland] clearances, you had a house cow. You’d take this partially skimmed milk, keep it nice and warm by the range. Eventually, it would set and form a very light yogurt-type curd. You’d then scramble it like eggs, put it directly under the heat, hang it up in a muslin or a pillowcase, drain off the whey, add salt—that was crowdie.”
Then there are the modern European-inspired cheeses: creamy bries, washed-rind alpines, soft Taleggio-esque wheels, and a wave of blues. “It’s a very curated trail,” says Lily Reade, third generation at Isle of Mull Cheese. “I think people would be very surprised at the range and how different they all are.” Isle of Mull’s Sgriob-Ruadh Farm and Distillery is a model for Scottish cheesemaking that blends the traditional with the modern. Visiting it is a brilliant excuse to visit Mull, and you’ll experience where the Reade family’s award-winning cheddar is born.
Humphrey Errington started Errington Cheese in the 1980s with a small flock of sheep. Today, the family’s third generation runs the farm—and has goats too.
Photo by Marc Millar
The tour takes you for a behind-the-scenes peek at their cheesemaking, maturation rooms, and distillery, where you can learn how the farm transforms its high-quality whey—normally a waste product—into spirits. Naturally, there’s a tasting to look forward to at the end. The sustainably minded farm’s Glass Barn farm shop and café offers sweeping views of Mull’s green, wind-battered landscape, as well as more cheese, locally produced preserves, biscuits, and oatcakes.
The Scottish cheese renaissance
By the 1970s, Scotland’s farmhouse cheesemakers were all but extinct, thanks to World War II–era dairy regulations that incentivized factory production and standardized a type of “government cheese.” But dairy farmers such as Humphrey Errington and Jeff and Christine Reade resuscitated the country’s artisan cheese in the 1980s, sparking a renaissance across Scotland that has come into its own today.
Precious few of Scotland’s dairy artisans craft unpasteurized cheese, and those that do represent the cream of the crop: Errington’s sheep’s and goat’s milk cheeses, Isle of Mull’s clothbound cheddar, St. Andrew’s Farmhouse Cheese Co.’s cheddar and Anster cheeses, Cambus O’May Cheese Co.’s farmhouse varieties. Each of their tasting rooms and farmhouse cafés is an essential stop on this dairy pilgrimage. To taste them is to know Scotland.
Errington offers a farm tour and cheese tasting day that lets visitors sample the farm’s creations and see how they’re made.
Photo by Marc Millar
“I think terroir in relation to cheese is more important than terroir in relation to wine,” Humphrey Errington says. “With raw-milk cheese, you’re getting flavors that come on the back of the palate up to 10 minutes after you’ve tasted it. You don’t get that with pasteurized cheese. The other thing to bear in mind with raw-milk cheese is that the milk varies through the seasons.” Spring milk is light, while high-summer milk yields bolder flavors.
To speak with any of Scotland’s cheesemakers is a lesson in art and agriculture, humility and history, and that alone is worth the trip. But if their dedication and their incredible wealth of knowledge aren’t enough to make you get in the car, cheese map in hand, the promise of excellent cheese most certainly is.
