In Menorca, A Rural Estate Built Of Marès Stone, With Its Stables, Old Cheese Dairy And Woodland

In Menorca, a rural estate built of marès stone, with its stables, old cheese dairy and woodland covering some 36.7 hectares. A square of cotton, with its four corners tied, and a piece of string that the Menorcans call ‘lligam’: this is how the island’s artisanal cheese is still made by hand, on the very farms where the cows are milked. It owes its square shape with rounded corners to this cloth, and its name, ‘Mahón’, to the port from which it was exported.

Set amidst some 36.7 ha of woodland and former farmland, one farm has preserved the room where this craft was once practised. The old cheese-making room now forms part of the kitchen, beneath the beams, near a wood-burning stove. All around, the marès stone walls enclose a feeding area, three cowsheds, a henhouse and traditional porches. Nothing of the Menorcan farm has been moved from its place.

The fabric has long since unravelled; the farm has retained its form.