Cork Butter Museum

Before we were permitted to start our expedition, there was the matter of acquiring tickets, which was no mean feat -- Garth Brooks tickets were reportedly easier to acquire than this.

Under-age minors are free in but for the rest of the adult population the entrance will be four euro. We bit the bullet and decided to take the plunge; sure, we were in the European city of culture -- we were going to have to pay a premium for such an enriching learning experience.

The office at the entrance was absolutely miniature, and housed a single, elderly gentleman who was crammed in the corner; a blanket on his lap to keep the heat in and a novel in his hands. He looks up and re-acclimatizes himself to the sight of another human being. He then opens his mouth and in an accent as thick as butter, he begins his monologue:

"Today, being a Sunday, the museum wouldn't normally be opened but we recently got sponsorship from Kerrygold to keep the lights on seven days out of the week. Now, that'll be four Pounds for each of you and you can spend as long as you like inside. Did I say Pounds? I meant Euro. You see, I'm still a bit fond of the old ways. Then, once you're in, there's a dee vee dee that I'll put on for you and it explains the history of butter and it's relevance to this great country. If you like to see it again, give me a holler and I'll come back and restart it. I'll have to stay outside here, in case any other customers come along today but let me know if you have any questions or queries about the butter and I can get you the answers. If there's anything I can't tell you right now, I'll go get Mary from next door, as she's a walking Encyclopedia Britannica. Now, after the dee vee dee, you can look around and see all our artifacts relating to butter and the production and distribution of butter.  Then, you can go upstairs and we have a couple more rooms detailing the economics of butter and the butter marker and another room dedicated to the early Irish history of butter. Now, you can leave your umbrella with me, so you don't have to be carrying it around and sure, don't worry about me keeping it from you, sure, wasn't it a wise man who said there's no point having two umbrellas and as you can see, I have me own one and isn't it in the Cork colours, so there's no mistakin' who owns which. I love Cork nearly as much as I love butter. Now, I'll let you get on with it, just go through that door and take your seats for the dee vee dee and I'll have the show on the road in no time."

Expectations had been set at the door -- this man was certainly a national treasure but nobody could prepare themselves for the majesty of how this DVD would compare. Without any context at all, it opens with serious butter jargon -- if you don't know your firkins from your dash churn, there's basically no point to watching the first forty-five minutes of the DVD. For act II, we're into the economics of the butter manufacture and how, by reducing the number of creameries in the country we were able to significantly increase the quality of butter produced by the country, which leads us into act III, in which the DVD details how, were it not for butter, Germany would have won the second World War and how butter single-handedly was responsible for permitting Ireland to join the EEC. Now, with the stage set for modern butter manufacture, the focus shifts to marketing butter as an Irish product in the global trading floor. For some reason, there's a section where we watch cows eat grass while smooth jazz plays in the background and the first female president of the dairy board reminisces about her family farm. The DVD shows a still image of the dairy section of a supermarket shelf and the narrator mentions "the same milk is sometimes used to make other products, such as cheese." The DVD fades to black and rolls the credits.

Returning to the rest of the museum was a challenge. We new we had only four hours until closing time and a whole lot of material to cover. This museum had everything. Bog butter, butter paddles, butter on podiums, an out-of-place diorama of two children on a hill overlooking a photograph of Cork (I can only assume the diorama was made out of butter), butter stamps, butter wrappers, butter churns (both the rotary and the vertical kind), a radio that played Doris Waters' famous song "Leave My Butter Alone," along with the sheet music from the same; essays from 1800 school children about butter, butter pans, butter boxes, historical butter prices and maps of the butter roads. How could we possibly prioritize all the items we wanted to see and take everything in?

Before leaving, be sure to stop in the gift shop. Unusually small for a significant museum, though.  The five best-selling items are announced on a plaque. There are only four items for sale. Egalitarian unisex aprons seem to be the order of the day. Remarkably good value.

My grandson really wanted to see the Butter Museum.  He may have been hoping for a tasting but sadly they don't offer that.  The tour is self-directed but starts with a video.  Having been buying Irish butter in the US because I like the taste, it was interesting to see what is different like milk coming from grass-fed cows and higher fat content making it spread easier.  

There are a lot of displays around the building. The big butter was interesting to see which demonstrates an older practice of burying butter in a bog to preserve it.  The large one they have is thought to be about 1000 years old.    

I found it interesting that Cork's history included being a butter exchange with a worldwide trade in butter.  Information includes the culture and history of dairying the various tools used to make butter, a collection of butter wrappings and more.

Overall interesting and educational but a tasting would really be a great addition

Have we met? You know I like butter right? When I was told by a friend that Cork had a Butter Museum, I had to take a couple of breaths. Were they serious? Yes, very serious!

Cork does have a butter museum but unfortunately no tasting room! Although I did see signs for butter making demonstrations which I missed but would have gone to if I had the time. The Butter Museum is walkable from the center of Cork, about a 10 - 15 minute walk. If you are taking the Hop on Hop off Bus, I did see it stop by the Butter Museum.

The gentleman who runs the Butter Museum, Dominic, is an amazing man. He is genuine and friendly, we spoke for awhile about almost everything. The museum itself is small but a couple of stories. Be prepared to stay about an hour, depending on how fascinated you are with the history of butter.

If you are truly interested in the history of butter in Ireland and how it effects their economy then this a good museum for you. As a foodie/ epicurean one can expect a good time inside this place. It gives you an appreciation of Ireland, the butter industry and how it got on the butter map through commercialism. There is a cool video by Kerry Gold that I liked because of the retro commercials. In the museum, there are displays of butter making equipment from the past and my favorite, old butter labels.  I found everything interesting.

Honestly, I am glad that I came to the Butter Museum, no disappointments. I love butter.

Looking for something random to do on a rainy day? The Butter Museum is a good option. Learn about some of the history of butter production in Ireland and then check out some of the butter churning "artifacts". It's a very small museum, so you should be done within an hour.

I am, however, removing a star because at no point were we offered any actual butter to taste. After all that talk about delicious creamy Irish butter, it was a cruel taunt not to have any to sample!

An old guy made some homemade butter in front of us just before we dwelled into the amazing story of this noble food. It was quite short but very inspiring.

Nice workshop but the creepiest museum ever.

Everything you would expect. If you're walking there, be prepared for a climb.

The man at the front told us where the closest ATM was because we had run out of euros yesterday. We thought we'd be the only ones in the place but our 'group' watching the DVD and then let loose in the exhibits grew as the DVD played and as we left, there was another group watching the DVD. Amazing to see.

This small but informative museum is a must-visit if you're near. It sheds light on the delicious and important export of this country. And they have really cute postcards made specifically for them.

BUTTER MUSEUM
At first glance, Cork's Butter Museum mightn't seem like much of an attraction. But, considering, that most of us (or at least most of our parents) came from the countryside and that virtually all of us use butter, it makes it worth the effort.

You'll be glad you went when you've seen the story unfold, the butter making its way over country "roads" from all over Munster to the Butter Exchange in Shandon which became the world's largest butter market and exported to many countries including the USA, West Indies, Brazil, Europe, India and Australia. No wonder the Financial Times said: "Do not miss."

For over one hundred years, Cork was a major player in the international butter market and the story is told by way of artefacts, audio-visual aids plus maps and other documents. There is even a container of bog butter, over a thousand years old!

You will also see old style butter making equipment and other types of containers such as the famous firkin. The firkin was a measure of weight and that weight was checked on a crane, hence the nearby round building called the Firkin Crane (now a dance academy).

Those of you of a certain age will remember getting loose butter in the English Market, the stall holder cutting the pound from a slab and tapping it into shape with a pair of small wood paddles (also on display).

There are a few video points around the two story display (the visit costs just four euro for an adult) and the one I liked best showed the butter being made in a  demonstration for the RTE programme The Butter Road. The butter road doesn't sound all that exciting but remember it took a week or so to complete the round trip from Killarney to Shandon and then you had the highwaymen ready to relieve you of your earnings on the way back.

Cork, which had introduced a before-its-time system of quality control, eventually ran out of steam and began to lose out to other countries and butter making technologies.

Irish butter ended up being sold unbranded and very cheaply in the UK until the 1960s when a national marketing effort put the product right back where it belonged and at a proper price. Joining the EEC also helped and you can see that story, the Kerrygold story, on video here.

Butter is part of what we are and you'll understand it all a little better after an hour or so at this pleasant place in Shandon. Actually, before I finish, I must mention the gentleman that we met there yesterday. He sold us our tickets but didn't leave it at that. He came in a few times to see how we were doing and added his own considerable knowledge to make it a very enjoyable visit indeed.

Well done to all involved and I hope that many visitors take the short trip up from the city centre to the Butter Museum this summer and that many locals, city and county folk alike, do likewise.

Shockingly, before I went to Cork, I hadn't actually heard of the Butter Museum. As soon as I arrived and saw that promotional leaflet, however, I knew that we'd have to make a stop. My friend was slightly less enthusiastic, but when she heard that admission was only €3, she agreed to come. There's the adventure spirit!

Oh my God. This place is the BEST. It starts with a video about the history of butter from the 1920s and its significance to the Irish economy. (As it turns out: quite significant!) Then you can walk around and look at old butter-related artifacts: whisks, churners, buckets, spreading knives... That sort of thing. Which might SOUND dull, but after that video (which is really quite well done) you understand the significance of everything. There's another video on the history of advertising in butter. It's very retro and hilarious. Upstairs is a full history of butter from the Middle Ages. Which is also surprisingly comprehensive.

Okay, so yeah, you need to go into this place excited. It's a museum about butter; it's exactly what it sounds like. When we went at about two in the afternoon on a Saturday, my friend and I were the only ones in the museum. So I wouldn't say it's exactly a major destination, but hey: it's cheap, it's interesting, and it won't take you much more than an hour. We spent about an hour and a half in there, because my friend and I wanted to read everything and we chatted for a good while with the amiable octogenarian who runs the place. He is a delight.

Do NOT laugh!  This place really does exist and it is a tribute to that wonderful substance we spread on bread.  My husband and I visited Cork for the day, while on our trip to Ireland.  We took the morning train out, and while we were looking at a travel brochure of Cork, we thought, "This sounds so corny, we HAVE to see it!"

But ya know what?  This museum is very informative and a lot of fun.  We learned all about the history of butter production in Ireland.  We learned about the early butter production techniques and dairy farming.  There is an entire floor devoted towards this and it also shows how butter making progressed since the mid 20-th Century.

Another part of the museum deals with Cork and the Butter Exchange Market.  It shows how Cork became a big trading center and was the largest butter market in the world.  Finally, as part of the market, the number of cows a man owned determined his social status.

So don't laugh!  This is a fun and informative museum.  And it's something we would not have ordinarily thought to visit!

No there were no sculptures made of butter. But they do show the original equipment used to make it. It was pretty fun learning about the beginning of the butter industry, since it's not something you usually think about. Also, apparently back in the day when someone was crowned king, they had to go steal a cow farm to prove their worth. Wealth was measured by how many cows you had, so cow raids were quite popular.
If you're looking for something to do in Cork on a rainy day or just to learn some history, this is a good place to go.