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.