2,500-yr-old butter found in bog

BOG butter found in a timber vessel in a bog at Shancloon near Caherlistrane in north Galway could be 2,000 to 2,500 years old according to a specialist from the National Museum of Ireland.

The butter, weighing almost two stone, was found in a timber keg, which may have been hewn out of tree trunk and was shaped into a barrel using primitive early Iron Age implements.

The container of bog butter was found in a plot of bog where Ray Moylan from Liss, Headford, was having his annual supply of turf cut by local contractor Declan McDonagh.

Ray, a part-time bus driver, contacted the Office of Public Works, Headland Archaeology in Galway and then the National Museum of Ireland, regarding the discovery.

The keg of bog butter was found buried in the peat at a depth of about three or four feet and while the mechanical bucket of the turf cutting machine hit the vessel it only caused damage to part of the barrel and all the butter remained intact when it was removed to higher ground.

As he surveyed the find in the north Galway bog this week, Padraig Clancy, assistant keeper with the National Museum, said it could be anything up to 2,500 years old. Along with his colleague, Karena Morton, conservator at the National Museum of Country Life, Castlebar, they removed the butter and the vessel and it is en route to the National Museum’s facility in Lanesboro. There it will be analysed, the keg will be put into a preservative solution and the butter will subsequently be freeze dried.

“The type of vessel it is in usually helps us to date the period the butter is from and this one could date back to the Iron Age,” said Padraig.

“The butter will be separated from the vessel and a solution of polyethylene glycol will be use to preserve the timber. The butter will be freeze dried before it goes to the National Museum in Dublin,” says Karena.

She said that sometimes people might be brave enough to taste bog butter, “but I am not going to risk it,” she joked.