Torrylinn Creamery

Grazing on lush southern grasslands are the herds of black and white Friesian cows which supply the Torrylinn Creamery in the tiny village of Kilmory on Arran’s south coast.

The island's three dairy farms supply milk to the Creamery which has been on this site since the 1940s when it was built by the Milk Marketing Board (MMB) to make a cheddar type of cheese known as Arran Dunlop. Today, it has survived the demise of the MMB and is now owned by Scottish Milk Products, yet it continues to make the same creamy tasting Dunlop type cheese with the old hands on creamery methods.

Like small creameries on other West Coast islands, it escaped the 70s and 80s amalgamation into large scale industrial units which now make continuous-production cheddar. The distinctive Arran cheese survives.

Its Dunlop-type characteristics make it a creamier, more subtly flavoured, less acidic cheese than a traditional cheddar. Its particular character is created, not just by the people who make it, but also by the island's volcanic soil, its high rainfall and the dairy cows who convert the prolific grasslands into rich Arran milk.

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