Burren Gold’s the star of the Aillwee Cave Farm Shop that highlights the best of Irish Food

Burren Gold’s the star of the Aillwee Cave Farm Shop that highlights the best of Irish Food.

There’s a bunch of cows, Holstein Friesians and Fleckviehs (an Austrian breed), grazing on the tough fields around the Caherconnell Stone Fort in the heart of the Burren in County Clare. The Fleckviehs have arrived in the last couple of years. 

Not easy for a cow to get a decent biteful here; grass is not plentiful, far from it, but the cows also eat some of the famous herbs and plants that grow in the crevices in the great pavement of the Burren rock. And that hard-earned mix of flavours goes to make Burren Gold, a Gouda style cheese for which Aillwee is rightly famous.

We made our most recent visit to the famous complex last week and Farm Shop manager Dave filled us on the benefit of the new arrivals. “Before we were milking twice a day, now it is once a day, which is just what the farmer wanted. From the same number of cattle we are getting much the same quantity of milk but milk of a better quality; that there is more butter content in the milk is to our advantage.”

So both Aillwee and the farmer have benefited from the inclusion of the Austrian breed. They have been making the cheese here since 1985. So why haven’t we heard more about it? The main reason is that over 90 per cent of it is sold right here in the Farm Shop and the rest locally.

Burren Gold is a firm textured Gouda style cheese with a rich creamy taste. It comes in a variety of flavours:- Plain, Smoked, Cumin, Garlic & Nettle, Black Pepper and for something a little more exotic—Piri Piri. 

They also age some of the cheese. You can see the racks of wheels in a glassed off section of the cheesemaking shop (you can also see the cheesemaker in action), one for 12 months, another for 24.  These mature cheeses are splendid and we bought ourselves a piece that was just over 12 months. And it seems every bit as good, if not better, than it was on our last visit in early 2019. And you’ll soon be able to buy even older cheeses here.

Some of my shopping!

With all the sales at the cave, I thought they would have been lower numbers of cheese purchases because of Covid restrictions. But not a bit of it! Dave: “It has been our busiest summer ever.” But they did take steps to make sure sales stayed up. They introduced online sales and also a Cheese Club and both have been very successful. Check it out here. 

When we spoke on September 1st, Dave was keen to let me know how the shop itself had changed over the past two years, stressing that the range of produce and products available had changed. Before, much had been imported. Now “it is 95% Irish” and he is rightly proud of this and the fact that many local Clare people have an outlet for their work.

“We are all about sustainability and local. We have St Tola here and Tipperary Blue by Pete McDonnell (who is out in southern Africa at present helping set up a community cheese enterprise).”

Dave pointed to soaps by Airimid from Kilfenora and those under the Moher name (made by an ex employee), local jams including some from the Clare Jam Co in Doolin. They have beautiful occasion cards by Lamblittle (see lamblittle on Insta), coffee by Anam, seaweed products by WASi, colourful pottery by Bridget Shelly, dairy free chocolate by Nobó, beeswax food wraps by octogenarian Mary Wall of Cutra Bees and much more.

Dave with a 5-year old wheel

Cheese is the top selling product here of course. You’ll see Maggie behind the cheese counter regularly and she is responsible for the next best seller: a delicious fudge that comes in a variety of flavours. You don’t want to miss out on that! I didn’t when I filled my bag here on the following day!

When you visit Aillwee, be prepared to spend some time there, not just on the shopping. You may of course visit the famous cave, part of the Burren Geo-Park.  You may buy a combined ticket that will enable you see the Birds of Prey put through their paces in the arena.  And if you want to interact closely with one of nature's top predators, then sign up for the Hawk Walk (you’ll need to do this in advance). This walk also includes admission to the cave and the Birds of Prey. More details on my August 31st Hawk Walk here.

Visiting Clare this Summer? You should! Here's my collection from earlier this year.

Visiting Clare this Summer? You should!
Here's my collection from earlier this year.
One Way to Taste The Island!

Dinner at Red Cliff

Pygmy goat at Bunratty Castle

Bunratty Castle & Folk Park

Hazel Mountain Chocolate

The Burren Brewery

Roadside Tavern and Burren Brewery

My Tour of Clare

Doolin Cave

St Tola Goats Cheese visit

Henry's Bistro & Wine Bar Ennis

Fish cakes at Henry's

Burren Gold Cheese

Welcome to Burren Gold

Red Cliff Lodge Restaurant Spanish Point

The Oar Restaurant, Doolin

Oar Doolin

Noel's Restaurant at Bunratty Manor

Noel's at Bunratty Manor

Naughton's Kilkee
The Coast of Clare. From Ballyvaughan to Loop Head to Kilrush.

Ancient Poulnabrone in the heart of amazing Burren

Clare: A County of Cliffs and Karst, Caves and Cheese. And so much more!

Clare: A County of Cliffs and Karst, Caves and Cheese. 

And so much more!

Ancient Poulnabrone

You think of Clare, and the Cliffs of Moher and The Burren (a Karst landscape) always come to mind. They are indeed amazing visits but there is so much more as I found out in a recent two day trip.

There are two excellent cave visits. Aillwee is probably the best-known but this time we choose to go to Doolin to see the extraordinary stalactite there. We visited two cheese makers, the well-known St Tola and Burren Gold. Then there was the Burren Perfumery in an isolated spot but still managing to employ over 30 people in the season.

Superb packaging at Burren Perfume

Perfumery garden

As you travel between the perfumery and Aillwee you’ll the grey Burren stretching away at either side. And here too there are reminders of the past, a castle (Lemanagh), a fort (Caherconnell) and, most memorable of all, the ancient tomb at Poulnabrone. Just a few of the many attractions listed on the very helpful leaflet Burren and Cliffs of Moher GeoPark.

Okay, let us start with the cheese. We spent most of the first morning with Brian at St Tola and you may read all about it here. Our last call that afternoon was to the Farm Shop at Aillwee Caves where, if you’re lucky, you can see the Burren Gold being made. We had a lovely chat with Dave here  and an even lovelier tasting.

In between the cheese stops, we called to our B&B, the Fergus View, and got detailed directions for the afternoon from a very helpful Mary. And that was how we ended up at Poulnabrone. 

This is a Portal Tomb built, from great slabs of limestone, over 5,000 years ago (around the same time as the pyramids were being built) on the grey pavement of the Burren. The remains of over 30 people have been found on this ancient site. It is indeed much smaller than the pyramids but still you look at it in awe. 

And that awe continues as you eyes take in the extent of the grey pavement  (formed 350 millions years ago) all around as it stretches into the distance and you pick it up on the flanks of the distant hills.

Moher

Moher ??

And we got more great views of the unique landscape as we made our way to Sadie Chowen's Burren Perfumery . This  small company is “making cosmetics and perfumes inspired by the landscape around us. Everything is made on site, by hand, in small batches”. They include perfumes, creams, soaps and candles in the portfolio. We enjoyed  a little tour there through the perfume area, the herb garden and the soap room. There is also a Tea Room with homemade local food. The perfumery is open daily all year round.

The following morning we headed for Doolin on the coast, not to take a boat to the Aran Islands and not to take one along the Cliffs of Moher, but to visit the cave there. It is privately owned, by the Browne family. In addition to the cave, there is a café and a nature walk.

Mike Dickenson and Brian Varley, from a Yorkshire pothole club, discovered the cave in 1952. They crawled in. You don’t have to do that nowadays but you will have to bend down in certain parts. We had a terrific guide in Cathy and first she took us down the stairs which is enclosed in a concrete shaft stretching some 80 feet down; then, with our helmets on, we continued down to 80 metres.

Doolin's amazing stalactite. 10 tonnes, 23 feet.

Now, we get “orders” to turn out all mobile phone lights and we are briefly in darkness. A few lights come on in the blackness. Next there are oohs and aahs as the great stalactite is revealed, all 10 tonnes of it, all 23 feet of it (the longest free hanging stalactite in Europe!).  Amazing!

Doolin sheep

As Cathy takes us around and then under it, we get to know it a little better. One side (the whiter one), with drops of water still dripping, is longer than the other which has no drip and has stopped growing, it is “dead”.

Above ground, the nature trail takes visitors on a short rural walk where you will encounter some farm animals including rare breeds of pygmy goats and Soay and Jacob sheep, ducks and chickens. The ducks and chickens weren’t there on our trip, having been decimated by a rogue mink. But replacements were due!

There is also a well-regarded café and a shop and an area where you’ll see some information (mainly on posters) about the cave which was opened to the public only in 2006. As part of the planning permission, there is a limit of around 50,000 visitors per annum.

We had one or two other visits in mind in the Lisdoonvarna area but with the weather bright and clear, if quite breezy, we decided to head for the Cliffs of Moher. And the guy on the parking gate told us we’d made the correct decision, that the views were great.

And so they were. We joined the crowds (11 buses and more than half a mega-car-park full of cars) but the people were well spread out over the area and no sense of crowding at all. We walked and walked and took in the outstanding views. 

Something struck us as we strolled around. Most of the visitors were speaking a language other than English and those speaking English had either American or English accents. Of the small group in the morning’s cave visit, we were the only two “natives”. I know it was a working day (Friday) but still we wondered do we Irish really appreciate what we have on our doorstep. 

Ball retriever.

Over the past few years, we’ve often been asked what did we do this year. And we’d mention Kerry, Clare, Waterford, Wexford, Mayo, Donegal and so on. And the response often is. “Yes, but where did you go on holidays?” Quite a lot of us don’t consider it a holiday unless we go abroad.

We finished off the afternoon by taking the coastal route, calling at Liscannor (birthplace of John P Holland, inventor of the submarine) and a very lively Lahinch where surfers and golfers were out in force before reaching Berry Lodge at Spanish Point. Here we got a splendid welcome from owner David.

Plan to head to Clare again fairly soon, perhaps starting in the southern part of the county. Anything I should see, visit? After that, I’ll fill you in on a few places to eat and stay.

Surfers get a lesson on Lahinch beach while repairs (following last year's storms) continue in the background.

Also in Clare recently:
Bunratty Castle & Folk Park
Hazel Mountain Chocolate
The Burren Brewery
A Tour of Clare
St Tola Goats Cheese visit
Burren Gold Cheese
Henry's Bistro & Wine Bar Ennis

Taste of the Week. Burren Gold Cheese

Taste of the Week

Burren Gold Cheese

Dave, our host at Burren Gold

There’s a bunch of Holstein Friesians grazing on the tough fields around the Caherconnell Stone Fort in the heart of the Burren in County Clare. Not easy to get a decent biteful here; grass is not plentiful, far from it, but the cows also eat some of the famous herbs and exotic plants that grow in the crevices in the great pavement of the Burren rock. And that hard-earned mix of flavours goes to make Burren Gold, a Gouda style cheese and our Taste of the Week.

We have visited the famous Ailwee Caves in the area on a few occasions and head there again. But this time, instead of the caves, we are going to the Farm Shop, in the same complex. Here they sell lots of good things from the area, including honey, and indeed other cheeses and we also get a taste of the fantastic Cratloe Hills, a sheep milk cheese from the south of the county (and a previous Taste of the Week).

The milk from the Holstein Friesians of Caherconnell is brought here and you can see the cheese being made. Today though, the cheesemaker has a day off. Just by pure chance, we get talking to manager Dave and he talks us through the process.

They have been making the cheese here since 1985. So why haven’t we heard about it? The main reason is that over 90 per cent of it is sold right here in the Farm Shop and the rest locally. We actually found it on the breakfast menu at our B&B, the Fergus View near Corofin where the Kellehers, Mary and Declan, support all things local.

Burren Gold is a firm textured Gouda style cheese with a rich creamy taste. It comes in a variety of flavours:- Plain, Smoked, Cumin, Garlic & Nettle, Black Pepper and for something a little more exotic—Piri Piri. 

You can taste all the variations here - we did - and Dave was particularly proud of the Piri Piri and even more so of the Black Pepper which won a Gold Medal Award at the prestigious Bath and West Show in 2018.

They also age some of the cheese. You can see the racks of wheels in a glassed off section of the shop, one for 12 months, another for 24.  Those mature cheeses are splendid and we bought ourselves a piece that was just over 12 months. It is disappearing rapidly.

Actually, there is quite a lot to do here. You may of course visit the famous caves, all part of the Burren Geo-Park; you may buy a combined ticket that will enable you see the Birds of Prey.  And if you want to interact with one of nature's top predators, then sign up for the Hawk Walk (you’ll need to do this in advance). This walk also includes admission to the cave and the Birds of Prey.

Other attractions not too far away are the Burren Perfumery and the Poulnabrone dolmen, both amazing.

Ailwee Caves https://www.aillweecave.ie/ 

Ballyvaughan

Co. Clare

Tel: +353 (0)657077036

Also on this trip:
St Tola Goats Cheese