Editorial note: All information in this article is based on our June 2025 visit, as part of a larger article on Irish Cheese to be later featured in the Winter 2026 issue of Culture: The Word on Cheese Magazine. Please fact-check all details, figures, technical descriptions, and current business information directly with the cheesemaker before sharing or publishing.
A Little Farm, a Big Idea
In a quiet valley near the coast of West Cork, a pioneering cheesemaker, her daughter, and a small team continue to make cheese by hand, guided by decades of experience, a remarkable copper vat, and a deep love of the work.
Some cheesemakers set out with a business plan. Others start with a farm, a few cows, and a determination to make a living.
Jeffa Gill belongs firmly in the latter category.
In 1979, Jeffa began making cheese on her farm in Coomkeen, a beautiful valley just outside the village of Durrus in West Cork, Ireland. Like several of the women who helped revive Irish farmhouse cheesemaking after industrialization, she was an unlikely pioneer in a country that was only beginning to rediscover its artisan cheese traditions.
Her friend Veronica Steele, founder of Milleens Cheese, was among those encouraging farming families to explore cheesemaking as a way to make more of their milk. Jeffa started experimenting with a recipe inspired by American homestead cheesemaking, using milk from the seven or eight cows she kept at the time.
There wasn't an elaborate business plan or a grand vision of international cheese fame. There was a farm, a family to support, and milk that could become something more valuable than a commodity.
The recipe evolved, the cheese developed its own identity, and demand grew. By 1984, Durrus had already earned a gold medal at one of Ireland's early farmhouse cheese competitions. By the mid-1980s, Jeffa needed help, and her friend and neighbor Ann McGrath joined the business. Ann—known as Anne to many of us—has now been part of the enterprise for more than four decades.
Today, Durrus Cheese is made by Jeffa, her daughter Sarah Hennessy, Ann, and a small team in the same valley where it all began.
We were fortunate to have carried Durrus in our shop over the years, sourced through our friends at Neal's Yard Dairy. Visiting the farm gave us a much deeper appreciation for the people behind the cheese—and for just how much can grow from a modest beginning.
A Dairy with a Story to Tell
When we arrived, Sarah and Jeffa greeted us in the small tasting room and storefront that once served as the farm's original dairy.
The buildings around us tell the story of the business's evolution. Jeffa began by making cheese in her kitchen, then moved into a dedicated dairy room before production outgrew the farmhouse altogether. In the early 1990s, cheesemaking moved into converted farm buildings, including a former animal shed that remains the production dairy today.
And inside that dairy sits one of the most remarkable pieces of the story: a Swiss copper-lined cheesemaking vat that has been in service for decades.
The vat is still used to make the cheese, and its copper lining has stood the test of time. During our visit, we heard that an assessment of the copper had revealed just how substantial the original lining was. Its thickness would be difficult to replicate in a new vat today.
Of course, maintaining a traditional copper vat isn't as simple as keeping it around for nostalgia's sake. It requires careful, physically demanding cleaning and ongoing attention. But the family has continued to use it because it works—and because it is an integral part of the process they've refined over many years.
There is something wonderful about that. In an industry where new technology is constantly promising greater speed and efficiency, Durrus continues to make its cheese in a vat that has already witnessed decades of craftsmanship.
Milk from a Neighbor, Cheese from the Valley
As demand for Durrus grew, Jeffa reached a point where keeping and milking her own cows was no longer practical alongside the increasingly demanding work of cheesemaking.
The solution was to source milk from a neighboring farm, a relationship that has continued for more than 30 years.
Today, the family works with milk from a single herd of Friesian, Jersey, and Montbéliarde cows managed by the Buckley family. The milk is delivered several days a week, allowing Durrus to focus on what it does best: turning excellent local milk into carefully crafted cheese.
That long-standing relationship matters. Working with a single herd gives the cheesemakers a close connection to the source of their milk, and the partnership has developed over decades rather than being built around short-term purchasing decisions.
Jeffa's love of animals hasn't disappeared with the end of her own dairy herd, either. She continues to keep Dexter cattle on the farm, now with help managing them, allowing her to maintain a connection to the animals and the land without carrying the full demands of dairy farming.
The surrounding landscape is an essential part of the story. The Coomkeen valley sits within West Cork's Atlantic-influenced climate, where the weather, pasture, and local farming traditions all contribute to the character of the milk and the cheese.
Durrus describes its cheese as inseparable from this place: the land underfoot, the coastal climate, and the people who work together to produce it.
For cheesemongers, that's the essence of terroir—not just a location on a map, but the relationship between a place and the food it produces.
Making Cheese by Hand, Every Day
One of the things that makes Durrus special is its continued commitment to hands-on cheesemaking.
The team uses a traditional Swiss cheese harp to cut the curd in the copper-lined vat. The curds are then transferred into molds, where gravity helps them drain and settle into shape. From there, the wheels are brined, turned, washed, and matured by hand.
The work doesn't end when the cheese leaves the vat. During ripening, the team carefully washes and turns the cheeses to encourage the development of their distinctive mottled pinkish-grey rinds.
These rinds are part of what makes Durrus recognizable. The cheese's character develops through the interaction of the milk, the cultures used in production, the ripening environment, and the hands that care for each wheel.
It is a labor-intensive process, especially for a small team. There are no shortcuts to replacing the experience required to judge a cheese as it matures.
Jeffa knows this better than most. She made raw-milk cheese for many years before moving to pasteurized milk, a decision she described as a response to the challenge of producing consistent washed-rind cheese while managing the microbiology of the process.
Today, Durrus uses a batch-pasteurization process in its traditional vat. Rather than relying on a separate, high-throughput pasteurization system, the milk is heated and held at a controlled temperature before being cooled for cheesemaking. This approach allows the family to integrate pasteurization into the existing production process.
It's another example of how the family has adapted without abandoning its equipment or its hands-on approach.
A Family Business, Passing from Mother to Daughter
During our visit, it was clear that Durrus is entering another chapter.
Sarah has increasingly taken on the cheesemaking responsibilities, carrying forward the methods and knowledge her mother developed over decades. That transition is more than a change in job titles. Cheesemaking involves countless small judgments that are difficult to capture in a written recipe: how the curd feels, how the milk behaves, when a wheel needs attention, and how the cheese is developing beneath its rind.
Those skills are passed along through observation, repetition, and years of working side by side.
Ann remains a vital part of the team, overseeing the maturation and packing of the cheeses, while the wider team keeps production moving. The business has grown and adapted, but it remains a small-scale, family-centered operation.
Jeffa's son Matthew has followed a different path into product design, while Sarah returned to the family business because she wanted to be part of what her mother had built. Her son Ken represents another generation growing up around the farm and its work.
There is no suggestion that everyone must follow the same path. Instead, the family's story shows how a legacy can continue through different talents, interests, and contributions.
The cheese may be the product customers recognize, but the business behind it is a much larger web of relationships and shared experience.
Four Cheeses, Four Different Expressions
We were delighted to taste several cheeses during our visit, including varieties we already knew and others that gave us a new appreciation for the range.
Durrus: The Original
The cheese that started it all is a semi-soft, washed-rind cow's milk cheese with a natural rind and a straw-colored paste.
When young, Durrus can be mild, mellow, and grassy. As it matures, the flavor deepens into something richer, earthier, and more robust. Its texture is pliable, with tiny irregular openings in the paste and a creamy layer that develops beneath the rind.
The rind is especially distinctive, with its mottled pinkish-grey appearance. The family carefully washes and turns the wheels during maturation, encouraging the cultures that give Durrus its characteristic aroma and flavor.
Durrus is a cheese that rewards attention to age. A younger wheel offers a gentler, fresher experience; a more mature one develops a stronger, earthier personality.
It's easy to see why this cheese has become the foundation of the family's reputation. It is expressive without being one-dimensional, and it reflects decades of refinement in a style that Jeffa developed from her original farmhouse recipe.
Durrus Óg: A Younger, Softer Side
Durrus Óg is the younger, smaller-format member of the family.
Developed in 2008 while the team was experimenting with different sizes and maturation periods, Óg offers a softer, more youthful expression of the original cheese. Its thin pinkish rind surrounds a moist, supple paste, with a creamy texture that develops quickly.
Because it is younger and retains more moisture, it has a shorter shelf life than the larger, more mature Durrus. But that youth is part of its appeal: the cheese offers a fresh, approachable take on the family's washed-rind style.
It's also a wonderful cooking cheese. The family developed it with dishes such as tartiflette in mind, where a soft, melting cheese can bring richness and depth to potatoes, pasta, baked tartlets, and other comfort foods.
Think of it as a different stage in the life of a cheese, rather than simply a smaller version of the original.
Durrus Smoked: A Gentle Touch of Oak
The smoked version brings a different dimension to the range.
Made in small rounds and gently cold-smoked over oak, Durrus Smoked retains the creamy sweetness of the young cheese while adding an earthy, savory note. The smoke is intended to complement the cheese rather than overwhelm it.
That balance is important. When smoke dominates, the subtleties of the milk and the texture can disappear. Here, the goal is a cheese that still tastes like Durrus, with an additional layer of flavor.
It is a lovely option for a cheeseboard, and its soft texture also makes it versatile in cooking.
Dunmanus: A Taste of the Summer
Dunmanus is the outlier in the lineup: a firm, aged, mountain-style cheese made exclusively with summer milk.
The milk comes from cows grazing during the long summer days, when the pastures are lush and the Atlantic weather shapes the landscape. The family presses the cheese and matures it for months, allowing its flavor and texture to develop gradually.
At around six months, Dunmanus can be gently sweet and nutty. With additional maturation, it becomes more savory and grassy, sometimes developing a pleasant sharpness.
We found it a fascinating contrast to the softer washed-rind cheeses. It has the character of a traditional table cheese, with enough firmness to slice, grate, or melt beautifully.
It also demonstrates the family's willingness to work with seasonality. Dunmanus isn't simply produced year-round from a standardized milk supply; its identity is tied to the particular milk of the summer season.
A Visit That Didn't Go Quite to Plan
Of course, no cheesemaking visit would be complete without a reminder that producers are busy people with real work to do.
On the day we arrived, the team had just received a much-needed service call to reseal the floors in the dairy. They had been waiting months for the work, only to receive about 24 hours' notice that the contractor was coming.
In other words, we showed up on exactly the sort of day when visitors are least convenient.
But Sarah and Jeffa greeted us with smiles, stories, tea, and plenty of cheese. Despite the disruption, they made time for us, answered our questions, and shared the details of their work with generosity.
It was a lovely reminder that behind every cheese we sell is a real person balancing production, maintenance, deliveries, staff, and all the other demands of running a small business.
We sometimes imagine artisan cheesemaking as a perfectly picturesque scene of rolling green fields and quiet maturation rooms. The reality includes floor repairs, equipment maintenance, physically demanding work, and schedules that rarely cooperate with anyone's plans.
The cheese is worth it. But so are the people who make it.
The Joy of the Work
As our visit wound down, Jeffa said something that stayed with me:
“I don’t ever see it as work. I just love it. It’s not work for me. It’s fun.”
And I believed her.
Jeffa struck me as the embodiment of strength, resolve, and determination, balanced by a graceful ease, confidence, and optimism about the future of Durrus. She has spent more than four decades building a cheesemaking business, adapting to changing circumstances, and helping establish a lasting place for Irish farmhouse cheese.
Yet she spoke about her work with the enthusiasm of someone who still finds joy in the everyday process.
That may be the most important ingredient in Durrus.
Cheesemaking requires patience, repetition, physical effort, and a willingness to learn from every batch. It isn't always glamorous. There are early mornings, long days, and plenty of details that must be handled correctly. But when the work is connected to something you genuinely love, it becomes more than a job.
For Jeffa, it is a craft, a livelihood, a family legacy, and a source of pleasure all at once.
And now, as Sarah carries more of the cheesemaking forward, that passion is being passed to another generation.
A Cheese Rooted in Place
We left Coomkeen with a renewed appreciation for the cheeses we've been fortunate to carry at Antonelli's, and for the people behind them.
Durrus is a reminder that great cheese doesn't have to come from a large facility or a complicated business plan. It can grow from a few cows, a willingness to experiment, a deep connection to the land, and the determination to keep learning.
The old copper vat, the converted farm buildings, the decades-long relationship with a neighboring dairy herd, and the small team working by hand all tell the same story: this is a business that has evolved without losing its identity.
We are grateful to Jeffa, Sarah, Ann, and the whole Durrus team for welcoming us into their world, especially on a day when the dairy was anything but quiet.
The next time you see Durrus in our cheese case, take a moment to appreciate more than its beautiful washed rind and earthy, creamy paste. You're tasting a piece of West Cork, a family history that stretches across generations, and the work of a cheesemaker who still finds joy in what she does.
Do Good. Eat Good.
— Kendall, Antonelli’s Cheese
More pics on my social posted video:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DLLKtbBNhHc/
More info:
