Giant Slab of Bog Butter Recovered in Ireland

DONEGAL, REPUBLIC OF IRELAND—A slab of bog butter weighing nearly 50 pounds was discovered by a farmer digging a drain in a bog near Ireland’s northwestern coastline, according to a report in The Irish News. Bog butter is dairy or animal fat that has been placed in cool, oxygen-poor peat in order to preserve it, or perhaps as a gift to the gods. “The bogs would have acted as a cool place, almost like a refrigerator and the butter would have stayed there until it was retrieved by the farmer, or perhaps in this case the local community, and then subsequently was lost for one reason or another,” said archaeologist Paula Harvey, who examined the site where the butter was found. She said that the farmer, Michael Boyle, and his companion stopped digging when they spotted the unusual object. “He got a very distinct smell of a cheesy butter from it and quickly realized that it was butter,” Harvey explained. A small piece of wood was found on the mass, suggesting that it may have been placed in a box that has since decomposed. The butter is currently being analyzed at the National Museum of Ireland. To read about a 1,600-year-old wooden figure found in a County Roscommon bog, go to "An Irish Idol."