The move to Bute

I had worked for 30 years as a civil servant in Belfast, one day I came home from work and Mrs R informed me that she had spotted a job on the Scottish Island of Bute. I immediately had visions of us getting the Stranraer ferry then a 17 hour drive to be met by a fishing boat where we would be hurled about in 20 foot North Sea waves. Then, after landing in a hurricane we would have to get into a cart drawn by Shetland ponies over a bog to a cottage with only a howling gale and a raging ocean between us and the north pole. So I looked it up and found out it was only 33 miles from Glasgow! We visited on a beautiful September day and fell in love!

Why Cheesemaking

Having arrived in a howling gale the following April, Mrs R went off to her new job and I was left at home with Basil the dog. There appeared to be no civil service jobs on the Island. As Basil and I explored the island we saw lots of dairy cows. I had always loved cheese (see photos), but could not find a local cheese, I discovered that there had been cheesemaking on the Island but the creamery had closed several years ago. I decided then I wanted to be a cheese maker, how hard could it be! 

Becoming a Cheesemaker

I visited some cheesemakers and found them to be very helpful. I bought a home cheese making kit and started experimenting. I then decided to do a cheesemaking course at the West Highland Dairy in Stromeferry. I learnt how to make several cheeses including a similar one to what is now my Largie. When I got back I then had to find premises. Alan Kennedy of Largievrechtan who was very helpful providing me with milk offered his farm but due to hygiene regulations I could not use his farm. Eventually three years later after much searching with the support of the local community, Duncan Lyon of Drumachloy farm let me put a shipping container on his land which would become my 21st century farmhouse creamery, Without Duncan I would still be looking.

The move to Mid Argyll

Now that I was a cheese maker I was known as Mr Cheese and therefore Mrs R was known as Mrs Cheese. We had moved to Scotland because of Mrs C’s love of the sea and mountains, unfortunately there were no mountains on Bute , so we were off on our travels again. Mrs C found a job in Mid-Argyll so it was decided to move the cheese factory and I would travel to Bute to get my milk. I managed to source a suitable milk transporter from the West Highland Dairy and I decided to call it Ernie (the fastest milk truck in the West) . While on Bute we had also acquired a Sybil to go with Basil, so we had to break it to the dogs we were moving!. See pictures below.

Basil loved Bute and did not want to move as he looks wistfully at the sea. Sybil loves everything!