Our Story
Bryngaer - the hillfort
Bryngaer Goats is situated up in the hills just outside the market town of Llandovery. Our tiny smallholding looks across to an Iron Age hillfort, hence the name 'bryngaer' meaning 'hillfort' in Welsh. We have beautiful views of the Carmarthen Fans and Pen Y Fan as we are just outside the Brecon Beacons National Park, or Bannau Brycheiniog as it is now known.
In 2019 I gave up my career as a Palaeoecologist, and my family and I moved to a tiny smallholding in mid-Wales to pursue our love of self sufficiency, the Welsh landscape, and of course, goats (well the last one is my love).
Millie, Molly, and Hetty
Three years ago I bought my first goats - Millie, Molly and Hetty so that I could milk them and learn to make cheese. But first they had to have kids. After a visit to Yosef the Billy Goat, and five months later, all the girls had twins.
Now it was time to learn to milk...
Molly was head of the herd so I learnt to milk her on a milking stand I made myself. After a lot of refusing to get onto the milking stand, kicking and spilt buckets of milk we both started to get the hang of it. Litres of milk started to be saved each day. Once I had collected enough I experimented with making cheese in the kitchen, starting with a soft Chevre and then moving onto a harder Farmhouse-style. Many disasters followed but then gradually some success. I now knew I wanted to make cheese fulltime.
More Goats Needed
My tiny herd of nine goats would never be enough to start a cheese business so I found a supply of milk from a goat farmer. I now had litres of the stuff and could start to make good amounts of cheese. I decided on a soft blue as well as a harder Manchego-style cheese. In May 2023, Bryngaer Goats was born.