Dunlop cheese
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dunlop is a village in East Ayrshire, Scotland, lying between the village of Lugton and the town of Stewarton on the old turnpike road to Glasgow.
[edit] Introduction
Dunlop cheese is a mild cheese or 'sweet-milk cheese'[1] which resembles a soft Cheddar cheese in texture. It originates in Scotland and was first made in south western Scotland in the 18th century. It fell out of popularity some time after the end of WW2, however it has now appreciated for its value in various recipes and for eating on its own or with a dram of whisky. It is produced in several parts of Scotland.
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[edit] Barbara Gilmour
Barbara Gilmour or Barbra Gilmor in the spelling of her time, was a woman whose wits had been sharpened by her exile as a presbyterian in Ireland around 1660, during Scotland's troubles between the Restoration of Charles II and the dirk & drublie dayis after the revolution.[2] In Ireland she is thought to have learned the art of making whole milk cheese. She may have been in the Bantry Bay area, County Cork, where James Hamilton was based. James was a strong presbyterian adherent and son of Hans Hamilton the first Protestant minister of Dunlop Kirk, later becoming Baron Hamilton, Viscount Clandeboye.[3]
It is not known precisely where she came from, however 'Gilmore' or 'Gilmour' is a common local name, with for example a family of that name living in the 'Lands of Chapeltoun' at around the start of the 18th-century.[4]
Eventually, according to the Rev. Brisbane[5] writing in 1793, after the Revolution of 1688, she returned to Dunlop, in what is now East Ayrshire, bringing the recipe for the cheese with her. Paterson states that she was from the wife of John Dunlop, the farmer of Overhill Farm, now known as 'The Hill'. Introducing a new style of cheese was not straightforward and "Knowing" that cheese could not be made from whole milk, some of the locals came close to accusing her of witchcraft which could have resulted in her being burned to death at the Cross of Irvine.
Another source states that she was a pious young woman - a devout Covenanter; and, hearing of the martyrdom of Margaret Wilson (Scottish martyr) on Wigtown Sands, and being determined not to renounce the Covenant, she fled, like many others, from her home in Ayrshire to Ireland, and found employment in the county Down, where she acquired a knowledge of the Irish process of cheese making. The persecution of females having abated after the horrible event of Wigtown Sands, Miss Gilmour returned to her home in Dunlop, and became a farmer’s wife.[6]
Some others accused her of copying their recipes and indeed a farmer, Mr W. Aiton of Strathaven, pointed out that practical cheese makers were already aware of the benefit of adding cream to cheese before Barbara's time, and in his opinion Dunlop cheese was so named from a trader who took these cheeses from the parish up to Glasgow; others have cast doubt on the Irish origin of the 'recipe' without disputing Barbara Gilmour's introduction of Dunlop cheese.[7]
| Etymology |
| The name Dunlop may be derived from the Gaelic words Dun - a castle and luib - a bend. Therefore the place of the fortified hill by the bend in the river.[8] |
[edit] The Cheese Presses
Most sources, e.g. Dobie[2] state that "Barbara's Gilmours cheese press can still be seen today at 'The Hill'", however the cheese press here is dated 1760 and she died in 1732. The design of the press, with a heavy 'lintel' stone having a screwed shaft passing through it attached to a frame, allowed the dead weight of the stone to be lowered onto the cheese progressively, improving the overall drainage of the whey and the firming up of the curd.[9]
Another stone at the farm may represent the remains a primitive cheese press. It is an expertly carved 'trough' with various holes, grooves and three vertical sides. The groove running horizontally along the 'back' may have helped support a wooden frame above the 'trough'.[7] It may have been re-used for a different purpose at a later date and is unlikely to have been part of the 1760 press.
[edit] 'The Hill' Cheese press gallery. 2007.
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[edit] The Hill farm and the old road
This farm steading has an U-shaped plan and has been little modernised since the 19th century, leaving evidence for earlier phases plainly visible. The farm buildings comprise a two-storeyed farmhouse flanked to the south by stables, a harness room and a forge and to the north by a byre and a dairy. A barn and a cart shed are in a detached range to the rear (to the east) of the main block and a small watermill is to the north, adjacent to the dairy. The farm steading is built of whinstone rubble and has slate roofs. It was visited by the RCAHMS in 1993. In the surrounding fields can be seen the earthworks of a rig, some of which is slightly reverse-S in plan.[10]The farm buildings are notable, if not exceptional, for the numerous date stones and Marriage stone incorporated into various parts of the buildings.
The 17th-century road from Glasgow to Irvine ran passed 'The Hill' farm on the opposite side to the existing road, which is itself on the line of the 18th-century turnpike. The house use to 'face' the other direction as can be seen by a slight asymmetry in the existing frontage and the old 'front door' is now a just a window, but with 'tell tale' ornamentation on the lintel. Then presence of the road running passed the farm would have made the transport of her cheeses that much easier in those days of transport by pack animal or sledge. Timothy Pont's map of Cunninghame (1604 - 1608) marks an 'O Hill', emphasising the age of this settlement.[11]
[edit] Barbara Gilmours gravestone and descendents
Barbara and John's 'table' style horizontal gravestone is now positioned as an upright against a wall of Dunlop kirk. It is very well preserved and as stated, gives the date 1732 for her demise. The gravestone inscription mentions 'children' plural, however only a daughter, Mary, survived her parents, marrying Allan, son of Allan Brown of Gabroch-hill. Their son, Andrew Brown, succeeded to Hill, and through his wife Jean Anderson, they afterwards succeeded to Craighead farm.[2]Mary Dunlop, daughter of John Dunlop of Boarland and Jean Gilnour of Tailend, had the half of Boarland, died at the Hill, the property of her mother's brother-in-law, in 1839.[12] The Rev. Brisbane noted in 1793 that Barbara's grandson was still living and was the proprietor at 'The Hill.'[5]
[edit] Dunlop Cheese
Barbara successfully manufactured a 'species' of cheese till then unknown in Scotland, being made from unskimmed milk from the famous Ayrshire cows. Her process was copied by her neighbours and 'Dunlop cheese' came into such demand, that whether made by Barbara or her neighbours, or by the housewives of adjoining parishes, it found a ready market. It is suggested that the spread of the cheese to other districts was largely through farmers who had settled there from Dunlop parish.[14] Even William Cobbett himself pronounced it 'equal in quality to any cheese from Cheshire, Gloucestershire, or Wiltshire.'
She was something of an 'evangelist' in the matter of making sweet milk (unskimmed milk) cheese,and being a forthright and energetic character she traveled widely to teach the making of her Dunlop cheese, and so stimulated a nation-wide demand. This demand stimulated merchants to visit Cunninghame, buy Dunlop cheese and sell it throughout the central lowlands of Scotland. Local cheese merchants from Kirktoun also bought up the cheese and took them to Glasgow for sale in the markets.
Barbara's system for making Dunlop was widely copied and extended rapidly to many all parts of Scotland by the end of the 18th century, even where traditionally sheep's milk cheese had been made. "...from "Cheesemaking in Scotland".[15] Nothing but skimmed milk having been used in the process of cheese making in this district, previously. All the cheese similarly made in the western counties received the appellation of "Dunlop" and in 1837 the Ayrshire Statistical Account records that 25,000 stones imperial were made in this parish annually.
The characteristics of Dunlop cheese is that it has a mild, sweet, buttery-tasting cheese with a semi-soft texture when young but maturing to a fudgey or hard texture after a few months. Dunlop cheese is soft and tasteless when turned out of the chesset or mould, and requires from six to twelve months to mature; and, to acquire the light, elegant, charming flavour and fragrance peculiar to the best Dunlop, and completely superior to any Cheddar or other make, it must be kept in a thoroughly dry place, and be frequently turned upside-down, as it undergoes a slight fermentation which heaves it a little on the top. One drawback for Dunlop cheese is that its nearest direct competitor, New Cheddar cheese, being dry and hard, retains its weight while kept in stock, and is also in the condition at an earlier date to be exhibited in cuts.[6]
Historically poor transport had encouraged the making of butter and cheese from fresh milk due to its highly perishable nature, however when the railways came in the 19th-century farmers were able to transport and sell their milk further afield and much less was available for making cheese. Paterson[16] records in 1866 that Dunlop cheese has to some extent been superseded by the Cheddar system of cheese-making.
The high value which was set on the Barbara Gilmour cheese for the purpose of roasting was very much confined to Ayrshire, where a farl of oat cake or supple scone spread with roasted cheese, and a bowl of milk, or whey, or tea, or cold water, made a highly relished and substantial meal, precluding in many families the use of bacon for breakfast. With the vast population of England cheese was only eaten 'raw' with loaf bread, usually spread with mustard, and accompanied with the inevitable pot of beer. For this purpose the dry Cheddar and dry and salt American cheese were the favourites. The very dryness and saltness heighten thirst, and therefore the relish of the beer.[6]
[edit] Cadgers
Cadgers were the 'middlemen' who toured the farms and bought the cheeses by direct negotiation, sending them to the markets in Glasgow, Edinburgh and other places. By 1837 some fourteen cadgers made a living in Dunlop Parish through buying and selling Dunlop cheese.[17] In the long maturing stage Dunlop cheese loses very considerably in weight, which made dealers impatient to get it off their hands; and it was usually therefore retailed before it was ripe, and at an inferior price.[6]
[edit] A making Dunlop Cheese poem
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Receipt for Making Dunlop cheese
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[edit] Ayrshire or Dunlop Cattle
Dunlop Cattle are supposed to have originated here or within the parish, bred by J. Dunlop of that Ilk from improved stock from Holland, in around 1550 to 1700 or later. J. Dunlop of Titwood is said to have first bred 'Ayrshire Cows' at one of his home farms.[19] The breed, also known as Cunninghame or Ayrshire cattle are pied, white and brown, short in leg, long in the horn, straight in the back: the bulls are fiery in temper and the cows are peculiarly placid and docile. They produce milk which is very high in butterfat and ideal for cheese-making[8]. The milk has a high protein content but is relatively homogenous.
It is an interesting point to note that the selective breeding of cattle was almost impossible before the enclosure of land by dykes and ditches in the 18th-century, because prior to this the cattle were free to mix without much control from the farmer and establishing or maintaining a 'pure breed' was therefore practically impossible.
[edit] Dunlop Cheese in recent times
The local Production of Dunlop Cheese ceased in around 1940, and has only been spasmodic since the Second World War, however Dunlop and other cheeses are now (2007) made at West Clerkland Farm just outside Stewarton on the Dunlop Road, and are also produced on Arran, Islay and elsewhere.
The Dunlop Cheese factory was sited near Dunlop railway station in what is now a housing estate, the memory of Dunlop Cheese production being kept alive by the name 'Creamery Row'.
Ann Durward of West Clerkland produces just 3,000 - 5,000 kg per year and also makes a pasteurized version, which is interestingly different, plus both pasteurized and unpasteurized hard sheep and goats' cheeses.
The milk for the Dunlop cheese comes from her own herd of Ayrshire's; her other cheeses are also made with milk from her own stock. When Ann Durward came south to the British Cheese Awards in 2001, Dunlop was awarded a Gold Medal and Swinzie, her sheep's cheese, won the trophy for the Best Modern British Cheese.
[edit] Barbara Gilmour and Dunlop Cheese Gallery
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[edit] Micro history and local traditions
The Ayrshire Directory 1837 by Pigot & Co states the following:- The whole of the parish of Beith is enclosed and subdivided, and is almost all arable; the farms are small, and the tenants of this and the neighbouring parish of Dunlop may be said universally to make cheese, known by the name "Dunlop cheese" which is held in as high estimation in Scotland as the cheese of Cheshire and Gloucestershire in England. The value of this commodity sent annually to market from this parish has been calculated at upwards of £4000.
The British army & navy of this time purchased the 'Dunlop' type of cheese as the taste of cheeses made from skimmed milk when compared with unskimmed cheeses was so unsatisfactory that it caused dissent amongst the regular troops or sailors.
In the 1600s Dunloppe had two fairs a year for the sale of dairy stock, one on the second Friday of May; and the other called Hallowday, on the 12th. of November[2].
The Scottish Film Archive has a short film of footage inside Dunlop's cheese making factory, with men polishing surface of a cheese, [approx. 4 ft. diameter] women pass carrying smaller cheeses; cheese being loaded onto truck bearing slogan 'Here It Is! The World's Largest Dunlop Cheese Frae' Bonnie Scotland!' and a shot of truck leaving factory with sign `Half Ton Dunlop Cheese`. The date is 1965.
An Ayrshire Cow was given to Robbie Burns in 1788 by Mr. J. Dunlop of Dunlop. He wrote to say that the gift was the finest quey in Ayrshire.[19]'Quey' was the Scots for a heifer, meaning a cow before she had birthed a calf.[21]
In Sir Walter Scott's 'Heart Of Midlothian' he has the Duke of Argyll saying "the Dunlop is the very cheese of which I am so fond, and I will take it as the greatest favour you can do me to send one to Caroline Park. But remember, be on honour with it, Jeanie, and make it all yourself, for I am a real good judge."
Timothy Pont states of Stewarton & Dunlop in 1604 - 1608 that "the butter of this countrey in effecte ferues a grate pairt of ye Kingdome, one aker of ground heir zeilding more butter then 3 akers of ground in aney adiacent countreys"[2].
The word cheese has been 'chese' (in Middle English) and 'cīese' or 'cēse' (in Old English). Similar words are shared by other West Germanic languages, an early borrowing from the Latin word 'caseus'. — from which are derived the Celtic root which gives the Gaelic 'càise', Irish 'cáis' and the Welsh 'caws'. This whole group of words is probably derived from the proto-Indo-European root 'kwat-', which means "to ferment, become sour".
When the Romans began to make hard cheeses for their legionaries' supplies, a new word started to be used: formaticum, from caseus formatus, or "molded cheese". It is from this word that we get the French fromage.
[edit] See also
- Dalgarven Mill - The Ayrshire Museum of Country Life & Costume.
- Corsehill - A history of the area.
- Dunlop
- A Researcher's Guide to Local History terminology
- List of British cheeses
- Lugton
[edit] References
- ^ MacIntosh, John (1894). Ayrshire Nights Entertainments: A Descriptive Guide to the History, Traditions, Antiquities, etc. of the County of Ayr. Pub. Kilmarnock. P. 265.
- ^ a b c d e Dobie, James D. (ed Dobie, J.S.) (1876). Cunninghame, Topographized by Timothy Pont 1604–1608, with continuations and illustrative notices. Pub. John Tweed, Glasgow.
- ^ a b Robertson, George (1820). Topographical Description of Ayrshire; more Particularly of Cunninghame: together with a Genealogical account of the Principal families in that Bailiwick. Cunninghame Press. Irvine.
- ^ Chapeltoun Mains Archive (2007) - a collection of legal papers covering the 18th to the 20th Centuries.
- ^ a b Brisbane, T. (1793) In : The Statistical Account of Scotland. Vol.9, Ed. Sir J. Sinclair.
- ^ a b c d Dunlop Parish. Notes on the way through Ayrshire - 100 years ago.
- ^ a b c d e Smith, John. Cheesemaking in Scotland - A History. Scottish Dairy Association. ISBN 0-9525323-0-1. P. 32.
- ^ a b Bayne, John F. (1935). Dunlop Parish - A History of Church, Parish, and Nobility. Pub. T.& A. Constable, Pps. 10 - 16.
- ^ Smith, John. Cheesemaking in Scotland - A History. Scottish Dairy Association. ISBN 0-9525323-0-1. P. 23.
- ^ The RCAHMS Canmore site
- ^ *Pont, Timothy (1604). Cuninghamia. Pub. Blaeu in 1654.
- ^ Patterson, James (1866). History of the Counties of Ayr and Wigton. V.3. Cuninghame, Part E. Pub. Edinburgh. P.235.
- ^ Psalm 149
- ^ Smith, John. Cheesemaking in Scotland - A History. Scottish Dairy Association. ISBN 0-9525323-0-1. P. 31.
- ^ Smith, John. Cheesemaking in Scotland - A History. Scottish Dairy Association. ISBN 0-9525323-0-1.
- ^ Patterson, James (1866). History of the Counties of Ayr and Wigton. V.3. Cuninghame, Part E. Pub. Edinburgh. P.215.
- ^ Smith, John. Cheesemaking in Scotland - A History. Scottish Dairy Association. ISBN 0-9525323-0-1. P. 38.
- ^ Smith, John. Cheesemaking in Scotland - A History. Scottish Dairy Association. ISBN 0-9525323-0-1. P. 146.
- ^ a b Smith, John. Cheesemaking in Scotland - A History. Scottish Dairy Association. ISBN 0-9525323-0-1. P. 37.
- ^ Dunlop Ancient & Modern. An Exhibition. March 1998. Editor. Dugald Campbell. p. 12.
- ^ Local History Dictionary
[edit] Bibliography
- Boyle, Andrew (1990), Dunlop Cheese and Ayrshire Bacon. Ayrshire Heritage. Pub. Alloway Pub. Co., ISBN 0-907526-49-7.
[edit] External links
- An excellent Dunlop historical site
- A retail outlet & the history of the cheese.
- A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland
- A source of Dunlop Cheese.
- A page on Dunlop Cheese.
- Details of cheese making and a photograph of a stone cheese press at 'The Hill' farm in Dunlop.
- The Scottish Film Archive.
