Bavarian Bakehouse
The sourdough starter dates to 1984, when a German master baker and former merchant seaman named Karl Weichmann began baking in Kirkintilloch, and it still goes into every bread and roll they make.
Why go
Kathleen McShane, a former accountant, bought the bakery around fourteen years ago and moved production to a 4,000 sq ft plant in Cumbernauld in 2017 (SLTN). The output is over 35,000 items a week, made by hand across four shifts, and it lands in kitchens you already know: Porter and Rye, Sloans, Roots and Fruits, Stalks and Stems. That is the useful way to place this bakery. When a Glasgow steakhouse serves you a roll, there is a decent chance it came off this starter. The company sold wholesale only until 2020, and the Hyndland Street counter is how the rest of us get at it. They also built a dedicated gluten-free bakery on site in 2019, so they bake the gluten-free bread there rather than squeezing it onto a wheat line (venue).
Order this / avoid
- Order: sourdough off the 1984 starter, which the bakery says
gives our products a distinct depth and taste, that cannot be replicated
2. Then pretzels, viennoiserie and whatever traybake is on the counter. The gluten-free bread comes from the separate facility. - Avoid: setting the satnav for Cumbernauld. Deerdykes View is the wholesale plant with no shop. Also do not plan an evening visit; Hyndland Street shuts at 4pm seven days a week.
What locals & experts say
- SLTN (Gordon Davidson, November 2024), on the 40th birthday: owner Kathleen McShane said
We've stayed true to the original principles of using traditional, handcrafted techniques, and that's resonated with our clients.
1 - The rock-star line, from the same piece: Noel Gallagher and the Foo Fighters are both named as customers, and of one of them SLTN reports,
He said they were the best he had ever tasted, and the chefs even gave him some to take home with him in a doggy bag.
The piece does not say which.1 - Award: Wholesale Baker of the Year, 2023, reported by SLTN. The awarding body is not named in any source found, so treat the scope as unconfirmed.1
- Food hygiene: Pass, inspected 5 November 2025 at the Hyndland Street shop.4
Good to know
- Timing: 8am to 4pm Monday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm Sunday, per the shop's own page.
- Booking: walk-in retail counter. Wholesale is a separate business with its own account process.
- Dietary: gluten-free bread and cakes from a dedicated 2019 facility, plus vegan options at the counter. No cross-contamination statement covers the retail counter itself, so celiac diners should ask.
Verdict
should-visit — The starter has been alive since 1984 and goes into every bread and roll, the production is by hand at 35,000 items a week, and the client list runs through Porter and Rye and Sloans, which is a Glasgow chef's own answer to where the bread comes from. The Partick counter is where you can buy it without a wholesale account. Held below must-visit because no critic has assessed the baking and the one trade award has no confirmed awarding body, so the case rests on process and reputation rather than judgment.