Cumberland Farmhouse

Cumberland Farmhouse cheese is a hard pressed cows milk cheese made with milk from a herd of Shorthorn cattle which gives the cheese a slight lemony and rich flavour that delivers a delicious cheese that would be at home on any cheese board and is perhaps the most popular cheese from the Thornby Moor Dairy. 

Run by Carolyn and Leonie Fairbairn, Thornby Moor Dairy is located at the heart of the Solway Plain, looking out over the Northern Fells of the Lake District. The dairy is housed within the outbuildings of the old Crofton Hall Estate near Thursby, a few miles west of Carlisle.

Thornby Moor Dairy was established as a specialist cheesemaker in 1979 by Carolyn Fairbairn. She set up a dairy in the basement of the family home, a converted Solway bank barn. Entirely self taught in the art of cheesemaking, she began by adapting a basic smallholder recipe to make Allerdale cheese using raw milk from her own herd of goats.

Encouraged by a farming neighbour, production of raw cow’s milk cheeses soon followed and Cumberland Farmhouse was born. Designed to be a territorial for Cumbria; an everyday cheese noted for its buttery texture. (The Solway Plain, which lies to the north of the Lake District, was once renowned for buttermaking.)