Steilhead Cider
Steilhead Cider is the south-west's answer to proper farmhouse cider — Max and Penny Nowell have been making cider at Steilhead Cottage in Auldgirth, Nithsdale, about ten miles north of Dumfries, since 2013. The method is defiantly traditional: whole apples pressed for 100% fresh juice, fermented with nothing but the wild yeasts on the fruit (a process that can take up to a year), with no flavourings, sweeteners or sulphites added, and most bottles aged for up to two years before release. The fruit comes from their own orchard of around 60 trees and local growers, supplemented with Herefordshire cider apples while their own trees mature. Every cider in the range is named after a bird — Goldfinch, Siskin, Nuthatch, Bullfinch, Capercaillie, Swift & Swallow.
Steilhead is the real-deal traditional cider of the Scottish scene — still, dry, tannic, West Country in style but made in Nithsdale. If your reference point is sweet commercial cider, the bone-dry Nuthatch will be a shock; if you love proper farmhouse cider, this is one of very few places in Scotland making it. At around £3.50 a bottle direct (as of mid-2026) it's also remarkably good value for something wild-fermented and aged up to two years.
The Steilhead Cider range
Goldfinch
The producer describes it simply as 'sparkling, sharp and dry' — one of the few sparkling bottles in a range that is mostly still.
Swift & Swallow
Described by the producer as 'rounded, not so dry' — the gentlest entry point into a range that otherwise leans bone dry.
Capercaillie
The producer's descriptor is 'Scottish apple and oak' — the barrel-influenced bottle in the range.
Bullfinch
'Dry and complex' in the producer's own words.
Nuthatch
'Bone dry and full-flavoured' per the producer — the one for committed dry-cider drinkers.
Siskin
The producer describes it as 'like drinking green apples'. Stocked beyond the farm gate by independent merchants such as Harris & Co.
Available in: 500ml bottles
Where to buy
Direct from the Steilhead web shop (around £3.50 a bottle as of mid-2026, plus a mixed bottle pack), with a small number of independent stockists in Dumfries and Galloway and beyond. Not stocked in supermarkets.
Food pairings
- Roast pork and crackling
- Mature cheddar and hard cheeses
- Pork pies and charcuterie
- Rich pâtés (the sharper Goldfinch)
Most Scottish cider drinkers have never heard of Steilhead, and that's the point of seeking it out — a two-person operation making uncompromising dry cider the slow way since 2013. Don't expect a visitor centre or supermarket listings; expect still, dry, full-flavoured cider sold from a small web shop and a handful of local stockists. The bird names make it easy to work through the range and find your level of dryness.
Frequently asked questions
+Where is Steilhead Cider made?
At Steilhead Cottage in Auldgirth, Nithsdale — about ten miles north of Dumfries in south-west Scotland. Max and Penny Nowell have been making cider there since 2013.
+What style is Steilhead Cider?
Traditional West Country-style cider made in Scotland: mostly still, dry and full-flavoured, pressed from whole apples, wild-fermented with no added yeast, sweeteners, flavourings or sulphites, and aged for up to two years before bottling.
+Why are Steilhead ciders named after birds?
Every cider in the range carries a British bird name — Goldfinch, Siskin, Nuthatch, Bullfinch, Capercaillie, and Swift & Swallow. The names double as a rough guide to the range: Nuthatch is the bone-dry one, Swift & Swallow the roundest and least dry.
+Where can I buy Steilhead Cider?
Directly from steilheadcider.co.uk, where bottles were around £3.50 each as of mid-2026, with a mixed bottle pack available. A small number of independent merchants also stock it — Harris & Co carries the Siskin. It isn't in supermarkets.
Other Scottish cider producers
Caledonian Cider Co
Caledonian Cider Co is cider at its northern frontier — a small independent cidery founded in 2014 by Ryan Sealey at Conon Bridge, near Dingwall just north of Inverness. The approach is strictly natural: only freshly pressed juice, fermented with the wild yeasts found on the apples and in the cidery, then matured in oak barrels at ambient temperature so the cold Highland winter gives a long, slow fermentation. Nothing is added — no sulphites, no sweeteners, nothing but apples and time — and the fruit comes from every locally grown apple they can get hold of, from garden trees to their own cider-apple orchards, which are among the most northerly in Europe.
Naughton Cider Company
Naughton Cider Company is the most ambitious producer in Scottish cider — a family-run operation on the Naughton estate in north-east Fife, near Balmerino, founded by Peter Crawford, who spent over twenty years as a champagne specialist and importer before turning to cider. From 2018 he revived the estate's dormant orchards — including a walled orchard dating back centuries — and planted around 1,500 trees of classic cider varieties such as Dabinett, Kingston Black and Yarlington Mill. The cider is made with full champagne technique: fermentation in French oak casks that previously held champagne, secondary fermentation in the bottle, hand riddling, disgorgement, and long ageing on the lees.
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