Cheeses of Alkmaar
A North Holland town whose traditional cheese market, with carriers in straw hats and wooden barrows, runs in spring and summer.
Made, aged and sold here
Best time: April to September, the cheese market season.
Alkmaar is an old town of canals and gabled houses in North Holland. Its cheese market on the Waagplein is one of the oldest in the country, and it is kept alive as a show in spring and summer. Wheels of cheese are laid out in rows, tested by traders, and carried on wooden barrows by members of the cheese carriers' guild in white suits and coloured straw hats.
The cheese market
The carriers, kaasdragers, belong to a guild divided into companies, each with its own hat colour. Two men carry a barrow of cheeses, about 160 kilograms, at a fast shuffling trot to the weigh house, where the cheese is weighed on the old scales. Traders sample the cheese by boring out a core, and bargains are sealed by clapping hands.
The town
The Waag, the weigh house, was a chapel before becoming the town's scale in the sixteenth century, and it now houses a cheese museum. Alkmaar was the first Dutch town to resist a Spanish siege, in 1573, a victory still marked each October. Its canals, almshouse courtyards and the Grote Kerk make it easy to explore on foot.
A trail idea for Alkmaar
- Waagplein Watch the cheese market in season, from spring to early autumn.
- The Waag cheese museum Learn the history of Dutch cheese in the weigh house.
- Canal walk See gabled houses and courtyards along the town's canals.
- A cheese shop Taste young and old Dutch cheese by the slice.
Written by the EveryCheese desk with AI assistance. Background: "Alkmaar" on Wikipedia. Opening hours, markets, caves and tours change; check locally before travelling. If something is wrong, tell us.
Nothing matches those filters yet. Take one off, or check back: new cheeses are written every day.