Dunlop – An Old Kirkyard and a Farmhouse Cheese Lunch
A few hours.
The route
Dunlop gave its name to a cheese, and the farmer's wife credited with the first one is buried in the village kirkyard.
A few minutes away, Dunlop Dairy makes it on the farm again with milk from its own Ayrshire cows.
The day
Dunlop
A short morning of old stones and good cheese in the Ayrshire countryside, ending with lunch on a cheesemaking farm.
About two hours
Dunlop Kirk
A kirkyard
Dunlop Kirk stands at the foot of Main Street, with parking on the street in the village and at the station. Barbara Gilmour, a farmer's wife at the Hill Farm just outside the village, is credited with the first Dunlop cheese, made from whole milk when the cheese here was made from skimmed. The stone that marks her grave and her husband John's, dated 1732, can be seen in the kirkyard. The kirk was rebuilt in 1835 but kept the carved stonework of its 1641 aisle. Beside it is the little Clandeboye Hall, built in 1641 as a school by James Hamilton, Viscount Clandeboye. Behind the hall is the tomb he raised for his parents, Hans Hamilton, Dunlop's first Protestant minister, and his wife Janet. Restored in 2018, it has their marble figures at prayer back in place, and a board beside it tells its story.
5 min by car
Dunlop Dairy
Lunch
Dunlop Dairy is about 5 minutes' drive south-east, signed from the A735 between Dunlop and Stewarton, on a farm by the Clerkland Burn. Cheese has been made here since 1989, and the farm now keeps its own goats and Ayrshire cows, a breed once called the Dunlop cow. Its Traditional Ayrshire Dunlop is like a moister cheddar, mild at six months and mature at 12 to 14 months. Its hard goats' cheese, Bonnet, is named after Stewarton, the Bonnet Toun. The shop and tearoom fill a barn with a lintel dated 1766. Lunch is homemade soup, toasties and paninis, or a ploughman's with a choice of the farm's cheeses and homemade chutney, and the carrot cake is iced with the farm's own soft cheese. Milkshakes are made with the Ayrshires' milk, and through a viewing window you may see some of the cheesemaking.
If it rains
The dairy's shop and tearoom are under a roof; the kirkyard is open to the weather, so on a wet day keep the look round it short.
Where to stay
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Make it a weekend
More days out near Ayr.
Photographs by Scott, Lucy Prescott and Dunlop Dairy via Google