Our Cheese

We make four types of cheese at Durrus Cheese. Durrus Cheese is our classic semi-soft cheese, Durrus Óg is our youngest, soft/semi-soft cheese, Durrus Smoked is our oak-smoked cheese, and Dunmanus is our hard, aged, mountain-style cheese.

We produce our cheese using age old artisanal methods, with a Swiss cheese ‘harp’ to cut the curd by hand in a traditional copper-lined cheese vat. The curds drain in their molds as they are turned by hand to gently form their shape. Following a bath in briny water to absorb the salt they are then gently washed, wiped and turned each day in our ripening rooms in order to develop their characteristic mottled pinky-grey rinds when they rest in our curing rooms. All our cheese is made from locally-sourced pasteurised cow's milk.

The original recipe created by Jeffa Gill in 1979. Durrus Cheese has a natural rind that is developed slowly by washing it with cultures that are specific to our dairy. These cultures develop the mottled pinkish skin as the cheeses ripen in our curing rooms.

The paste is straw coloured with irregular tiny holes and a soft pliable texture. The flavour of the Durrus can range from mild, mellow and grassy when young to rich, strong and earthy when aged.

Durrus Cheese has won many awards over the years, both nationally and internationally. Recent awards include Gold Medals at the 2024 Irish Cheese Awards and 2021 Artisan Cheese Awards UK.

Durrus Óg is a soft, young cheese that has a thin pinkish rind. Our Durrus Óg was created in 2008 while tinkering around with sizes and maturity of our classic Durrus cheese. Having always enjoyed melted Durrus in one of our favourite dishes Tartiflette, which would traditionally be made with French Reblochon, we were curious to see if we could create a version of our cheese that would more closely resemble this French classic. Hence Durrus Óg was launched and received a Silver Medal from the World Cheese Awards at it’s debut outing that year.

Durrus Óg is ideal on a cheeseboard, it also melts incredibly well in cooking and offers a great alternative to Reblochon in dishes such as tartiflette, pasta dishes, baked tartlets and more.
Durrus Óg continues to be highly acclaimed, receiving a Gold Award and Best in Class Cheese at the Artisan Cheese Awards UK in 2024, as as well Silver at the irish Cheese Awards 2024. In 2023, Durrus Óg was awarded Joint Irish Class Winner and Best Semi-Soft Cheese at the Artisan Cheese Awards UK, and 3 Stars at the Guild of Fine Food Great Taste Awards.

Our smoked cheese is made in small rounds and gently oak smoked. This is the newest cheese to our range and benefits from the gentle addition of the smoke without over powering the sweet creaminess of the young cheese.

Dunmanus Cheese is a hard, aged, mountain-style cheese made from pasteurised cow's milk. This is a seasonal cheese, in that we use only summer milk in the production of Dunmanus. Throughout the long summer days, the cows graze the lush, green meadows that are moistened with salt-laden rain that comes in from the nearby Atlantic Ocean. These cows produce high quality, creamy, and truly wonderful milk – every cheesemaker's dream ingredient.

Using the time-honoured cheese making skills that have been perfected at Durrus Cheese since 1979, the milk is crafted into a cheese that is pressed and aged for a minimum of 6 months in our ripening rooms.

The flavours of Dunmanus Cheese range from gently sweet and nutty at 6 months, to more savoury and grassy (with a hint of sharpness) beyond 10 months. We consider Dunmanus Cheese a table cheese in our own house; and by this we mean we keep it on the table or kitchen counter (no need to put Dunmanus away in the fridge). We use it for everything – Ploughman's style lunches, fantastic cheese on toast, melted in gratins, grated over pasta, or simply eaten with no fuss and straight down the hatch!