Our History
Our Story
Just south of Aberdeen the Groat family have been working the land for generations and at the humble beginning milking just 6 cows by hand. The family have always been big cheese lovers and cheesemaking has always been in our family history. Having been looking for a new adventure cheesemaking was an obvious choice so The Devenick Dairy was born in 2006.
We have come a long way since we started. Cheese flavours and varieties have taken time to develop into today’s wide range of cheeses with unique tastes and aromas. Over time we have introduced a range of other products which we hope you will enjoy today.
Our Beginnings
The Groat family have been at Bishopston Farm, Banchory-Devenick since 1959 when Grandad Groat moved down from Orkney. He was one of 14 brothers and sisters who lived on a small island called Copinsay where they were nearly self-sustaining making everything themselves from growing their on vegetables, rearing their own meat being sheep, pigs and poultry to making bread and of courses cheese from the two milking cows.
Grandad Groat started with just 6 British Friesian cows which soon started to expand once he got settled in at the new farm. The milk churns we used for the milk with the first 6 cows are still in use today and can be seen at the front doors of the Tin Coo.
As the next generation got stuck in the cow number soon rose to 180 plus cows but always looking for the next adventure. Being big cheese lovers, we decided to make some traditional cheese for ourselves and soon we got addicted to cheesemaking. Soon after in 2006 the Devenick Dairy was born with a range of cheese, yogurt and cheesecake with the first sale being at Stonehaven Farmers Market.
Today
Things have come a long way today as the farm has changed to suit the needs of cheesemaking. Nearly all our cheese is made when the cows are out at grass and during the winter months when the grass stops growing they eat fermented grass that is surplus during the summer months which is high in sugars making all our milk FREE RANGE. Our cows are not pushed to produce high volumes of milk, just good quality creamy milk which gives us extra tasty cheese through our range.
We now have a team tasked solely to cheesemaking who couldn’t be more dedicated to producing the highest quality of products. We now have our Tin Coo which has opened up our farm for everyone to see what we do and offer a range of products made on farm from the cheese counter to the fresh meat counter.The farm, The Tin Coo & the cheese factory are all heated by our Biomass boilers on the farm with electricity coming from our small turbine which helps reduce our energy usage