Old Butter Roads Tours
The Old Butter Road Tours have a rich history stretching back over 270 years.. These tours are great for visitors taking holidays in Ireland and even for locals looking to learn more about the history of food production in Cork, Ireland. Suitable for big and small groups, the active retired, school outings or simply for fun.
The Old Butter Roads Food Trails is a co-operative of family owned and operated food and hospitality businesses, producers, growers and leisure activity providers, trading in the Avondhue, Blackwater, Duhallow and Muskerry areas North of Cork city, on the trails of the ‘Old Butter Roads’, in a region that once produced the majority of butter sold in Cork, when the city dominated the global butter trade from its world renowned Butter Exchange, in Shandon.
Butter producers would dispatch their precious dairy ‘gold’ in giant 56lb barrels called ‘firkins, into the city along the original ‘Old Butter Roads’, most of which can still be travelled to this very day and are now being used as ‘Trails’ along which visitors can travel to sample the food, hospitality and leisure activities available in the region
The annual Old Butter Roads festival is designed to promote the region as an area for tourism, most especially food tourism, drawing on centuries of tradition and heritage in food production and hospitality to showcase the wealth and variety of finest award-winning local produce and foodstuffs, including cheeses, beef, lamb and pork products, beverages (gins, ciders, apple brandy, craft beers and more) along with a wide range of top quality fruit, vegetables, breads, jams and preserves.
