Aubane to celebrate 270 years of Butter Road

AUBANE Social Club and friends are looking ahead to a celebration of the 270th Anniversary of the Butter Road at a special get together on Friday, May 18.

The 56 mile link between Cork and Kerry in operation from 1748 after the granting of an Act of Parliament with the gentry of the time opening up a route from developing Kerry with Cork City.

The Butter Road celebration is part of the Old Butter Roads Food Trails Festival acknowledging excellence in locally produced food and beverages. Its the co-operative group of family run and owned eateries and food producers that form the kernel of the festival show their credentials with the display of a milk churn representing when butter was transported to Cork city via Millstreet, Kanturk, Macroom, Mallow, and Mitchelstown.

These artisan producers have come together to offer food trails for visitors twice a week in Cork City and weekly throughout the county during May.

The month long festival begins in the Blarney area over the first weekend where a wide range of events with truly something for all the family. A meal at the Old Post Office and busking on the Saturday including the producers’ meal in the Square Table Restaurant on this Sunday and events in Blair’s Inn, Cloghroe. A special event ‘Remembering the Old Butter Roads’ is planned for the Bank Holiday Monday at the Whitechurch Community Centre with historians, food writers, cheesemakers and other producers from the Old Butter Roads area.

Subsequent events are planned for the Macroom area in the second week of May; Millstreet, Kanturk and Mallow involved during the third week and Mitchelstown on the closing weekend.

A major highlight of the festival takes place on Friday, May 18. A five course meal will showcase the producers and eateries of the Butter Road Food Trail, tickets at €27 each are available from Aubane Social Club members, Noreen Kelleher 087/9486673 or Celeste Buckley 083/3135750.