Prehistoric Irish elk skull found by fishermen

W hen he first saw it, fisherman Charlie Coyle thought he was looking at the devil. “Throw it back in!” he said to boat mate, Raymond McElroy. But it wasn’t the devil, it was the fantastically well-preserved skull and antlers of an Irish elk, a species that died out in Ireland 10,000 years ago. The pair hauled the skull aboard on a recent fishing trip on Lough Neagh, in Northern Ireland. “I’ve been on Lough Neagh 45 years and I never thought I’d find something that historical.” says Coyle.

The Irish elk was, in fact, a species of deer – the biggest to walk the earth. And it’s certainly not exclusively Irish – it roamed what is now modern-day Europe, northern Africa and Asia.

The skull’s authenticity has been confirmed by Dr Mike Simms at the Ulster Museum in Belfast. It’s the best-preserved specimen he’s seen in his time at the museum. Such remains occasionally turn up in Ireland in particular, partly thanks to the muddy lake sediments in which it is believed the elk sometimes became stuck.

“In other countries there’s not the same sort of situation,” says Dr Simms. “A combination of ancient lake sediments and peat bogs.”

The Irish elk had an antler span of over 3m; the skull ( below) found in Lough Neagh weighed about 60kg.