Barbara Gilmour was a woman whose wits had been sharpened by her exile as a presbyterian in Ireland around 1660, during Scotland's troubles between the Restoration of Charles II and the dirk & drublie dayis after the revolution.

[4] Another source states that she was a pious young woman–a devout Covenanter–and, hearing of the martyrdom of Margaret Wilson (in 1684 or 1685) on Wigtown Sands, and being determined not to renounce the Covenant, she fled, like many others, from her home in Ayrshire to Ireland, and found employment in County Down, where she acquired a knowledge of the Irish process of cheese making.

The persecution of females having abated after the horrible event of Wigtown Sands, Miss Gilmour returned to her home in Dunlop, and became a farmer's wife.

This farmstead, previously known as Over Dunlophill Montgomerie, has a U-shaped plan and has been little modernised since the 19th century, leaving evidence for earlier phases plainly visible.

The farm buildings comprise a two-storied farmhouse flanked to the south by stables, a harness room and a forge and to the north by a byre and a dairy.

A barn and a cart shed are in a detached range to the rear east of the main block and a small watermill is to the north, adjacent to the dairy.

'[6] Barbara successfully manufactured a species of cheese until then unknown in Scotland, being made from unskimmed milk from the famous Ayrshire cows.

Barbara's system for making Dunlop was widely copied and extended rapidly to many all parts of Scotland by the end of the 18th century, even where traditionally sheep's milk cheese had been made.

The high value which was set on the Barbara Gilmour cheese for the purpose of roasting was very much confined to Ayrshire, where a farl of oat cake or supple scone spread with roasted cheese, and a bowl of milk, or whey, or tea, or cold water, made a highly relished and substantial meal, precluding in many families the use of bacon for breakfast.

[15] In the long maturing stage Dunlop cheese loses very considerably in weight, which made dealers impatient to get it off their hands; and it was usually therefore retailed before it was ripe, and at an inferior price.

Light be the weight for hours, one, two, or three, And then the pressure may augmented be, Oft change the clouts, and when the cheese is dried, Send for the Parish Minister to Try't.

[18] The breed, also known as Cunninghame or Ayrshire cattle are pied, white and brown, short in leg, long in the horn, straight in the back: the bulls are fiery in temper and the cows are peculiarly placid and docile.

[20] In Sir Walter Scott's "Heart Of Midlothian" he has the Duke of Argyll saying "the Dunlop is the very cheese of which I am so fond, and I will take it as the greatest favour you can do me to send one to Caroline Park.

[1] One place that Dunlop cheese is made today (2008) is at West Clerkland Farm, a short distance from Barbara Gilmour's old home.