Donegal farmer unearths ancient slab of bog butter

A slab of butter believed to be hundreds of years old has been uncovered on a Donegal farm.

The ancient butter chunk was unearthed while work was ongoing at Micheál Boyle's farm at Loughfad, Portnoo.

Micheál spotted the block of butter peeking out of the ground after digger driver Alan Moore lifted a bucket of clay.

Micheál estimates that the slab weighs as much as 22kgs and dates back hundreds of years. Historians say that it could possibly date back to the Bronze Age.

“It was just by pure luck that we came across it,” Micheál said. “Alan took a bucket of stuff out and I could see this white thing in the ground. The minute I went down to it, I could get a smell off it and it was only about a foot into the ground.

“It's a perfect rectangle and was perfectly held together. It's completely greasy, but completely preserved.

“I got this salty, cheesy smell immediately, there was no mistaking what it was.

“This is only clay ground here, but it maybe was bogland back in time.”

Butter was sometimes buried in a bog to preserve it. Butter made without salt wouldn't last long, but the bog environment could lengthen its lifespan considerably as a means of natural refrigeration.

Some people also buried butter as an offering to the gods or spirits and was often encased in wooden containers.

Micheál told how there was “one little piece of wood” at the bottom end of this butter, suggesting that it was originally in a box which has since decomposed.

Initially, Michael thought about re-burying the butter along with a message in a bottle.

It will now be taken to the Conservation Department at the National Museum for research and analysis.

There are hopes that it can be returned to the area for public display in the Dolmen Centre. Local archaeologist Paula Harvey visited the site of the discovery and said: “It would be nice to keep it as local as possible.”

This is believed to be the first 'bog butter' find in Donegal since the 1980s in the Dunfanaghy area.