HERO CHEESE: Meeny Hill Goat

We’re super excited to present our first hero cheese from Northern Ireland - the hard, rich and charmingly mild mannered Meeny Hill Goat from Dart Mountain in Co. Derry.

Image credit: Angus D. Birditt

In a country blessed with lush pastures and an ideal climate for dairy farming, artisan cheesemaking became a thing of the past in Northern Ireland for decades. Julie and Kevin Hickey spotted a cheese-shaped hole on the nation’s food scene around 2009, and set about filling it.

Dart Mountain now produces eight styles of cheese - including this month’s hero cheese, Meeny Hill Goat - and a range of awesome chutneys and beer drizzles.

You can read all about their journey in cheese, nestled at the foot of the Sperrin Mountains, in the August issue of Cheese Crowd.