Cashel Blue: A Farmhouse Cheese Visit in Tipperary

Watch curds pressed and blue cheese ripening on a family farm, then taste Cashel Blue and its siblings at every stage of age.

Ireland’s Blue Cheese

Cashel Blue was first made in 1984, bringing a continental-style blue cheese to Ireland using local milk and traditional methods. The farm has since become a celebrated maker of farmhouse cheeses, sheep’s milk varieties among them, and part of Ireland’s rising reputation for artisan dairy.

Visiting, you learn about more than cheesemaking: the wider story of Irish dairy farming, the place of small family farms, and the ties between land, herd and food that shaped Ireland’s cooking alongside its rural communities.

Close Enough to Ask

On a private or small-group visit you see every step, ask whatever you like and talk with the family and their team in a way big tours can’t allow. Small groups can also go where general visitors don’t, including specialist ageing rooms and production spaces. It’s an easy, delicious half-day for a couple or friends touring the south of Ireland.

From Farmyard to Ageing Room

You start in the farmyard and move through the milking and production areas, watching curds form, the pressing, and the first development of the blue mould. In the ageing room, wheels of Cashel Blue, sheep’s milk cheese and other varieties line the shelves, each labelled with its age and batch.

An Unhurried Tasting

The tasting takes its time, so you can savour each cheese, compare flavours and see how age, milk and method change them. They’re paired with local breads or preserves, and your guide explains each one’s flavour, texture and character and how it reflects the farm’s land and history, so you leave knowing both how it’s made and where it comes from. Your Out Of Office LGBTQ+ travel specialist can build the visit into a wider tour of Ireland.