The Island Smokery

Callum owned a deli and an Orkney hamper business in Stromness and Orkney smoked cheddar produced by the local Claymore Creamery was very popular. The creamery became the Orkney Cheese Company Ltd and relocated to a new purpose built premises focusing entirely on producing Orkney cheddar. There was to be no more smoked cheese produced which would be a huge miss in Orkney.

Having seen the popularity of the cheese known locally as ‘pound rounds’, Callum approached the Orkney Cheese Company for the go ahead to produce Orkney smoked cheddar. Intended as a small scale operation to fill a few hampers, Callum started with one small smoker in the back of his shop and melted many a batch of cheese in his efforts to perfect the process.

Once perfected Callum sold the cheese in his own shop and other local outlets but could see the potential for Orkney smoked cheddar on a larger scale. A factory unit was built next to the house and the Island Smokery was born.

Since then, the company has grown to supply outlets across Scotland and North England, and in 2016 delved into the export market. At this point we had outgrown our factory so in 2017 we relocated, allowing us to triple production and explore new markets.

Multi-award winning Orkney Cheddar owes its very special taste to Orkney’s unique surroundings and climate.

The cattle in Orkney graze on rich pastures and benefit from the long days of northern light in the summer.

The climate is unexpectedly temperate for being so far north, thanks to the proximity of the Gulf Stream, allowing the cattle to feed in this fresh environment for 6 months of the year, sheltering in the winter months and feasting on a range of home grown produce, such as barley and turnips.

All this has created the perfect environment for a rich, creamy milk used exclusively in the production of Orkney Cheddar.

We use only Orkney cheddar for all our smoked cheese. The blocks of cheese are cut, and individually smoked using traditional methods. Originally smoking white mature cheddar, we have increased the range to include smoked red cheddar and in more recent years, we’ve developed a flavoured selection of blended cheeses.

In 2016 the Island Smokery became one of a number of Scottish cheese producers to join the Scottish Dairy Brand group. Orkney Smokey Red became the first product to be sold to the US under this initiative and more recently our flavoured cheddars have also hit US soil.

Working in partnership with the Orkney Cheese Company, we have added Orkney butter to our growing range. A by-product of the cheese making process, the butter is a traditional farmhouse style butter which is deliciously rich.