Summerhill Farm, Co. Kilkenny

Summerhill

Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny


Grass reared beef

Hereford, Aberdeen Angus and Belted Galloway

Hereford. Angus. Galloway.

Ten months a year on grass

Steel engraving of a purebred Hereford bull in profile.

Ten months on grass

Summerhill sits a few miles outside Thomastown, in the river country of south Kilkenny. The cattle are out on grass from spring until the ground turns, and they take their time.

Cattle grazing a hedged pasture below rolling farmland at Summerhill.

Summer pasture at Summerhill

Three breeds

None of them are quick to finish. That is the reason they are here.

Steel engraving of a purebred Hereford bull in profile.

Hereford

The breed the Williams family had a hand in spreading across Ireland. White face, deep body, and a temperament that suits a life outdoors. It carries fat where it matters and it takes its time getting there.

Steel engraving of the farmhouse at Summerhill, with a five bar gate, drystone wall and hawthorn hedge.

The man who rears it

Mark Williams is the sixth generation of his family to farm at Summerhill. The Williams family have been on that ground long enough to have had a hand in spreading the Hereford breed across Ireland.

He spent more than thirty years choosing beef for other people’s kitchens. In 2018 he stopped sending all of it away and opened a room of his own in Kilkenny, fourteen kilometres from the field.

He still rears the calves, still chooses the cattle, and still picks the cuts himself, one at a time.

6Generations at Summerhill
3Traditional breeds
10Months a year on grass
14Kilometres to the table

Where it goes

Summerhill beef goes to kitchens that want to know the field it came out of. Mark picks every animal himself.

Butcher The Butterslip, Kilkenny

Talk to us about supply


Tell us the kitchen, roughly what you go through in a week, and when you would want to start. Mark answers these himself.

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Cuts, rough weekly volume, and when you would want to start. Please add a line or two so Mark can answer properly.