Mick and I had never heard of these before, let alone seen one. But here at our current house sit, the 16th Century farmhouse is surrounded by many ‘out buildings’, including stables and sheds. But there is also a Butter Maid Cave.

It was hard to spot it at first. We really only saw the neatly piled logs on the lawn and when we went to investigate a little further, we saw the old rock steps.

The steps led down to an opening that had been secured using large rocks – in order to create a ‘cave’.

The current owner of the property explained what it was and how it would have been used. The little creek on the property actually runs across the floor of the cave.

This photo shows how the cave is positioned in relation to the main house – it is quite close to it, and about halfway from where the creek is now channeled along a rock-lined alley.

Mick decided to take a closer look – obviously butter maids were a bit shorter than him – but he did discover there were hinges for a door which would have hung here so the cave could be closed off.

The constantly running water across the floor of the cave would have kept the cave nice and cool, and perfect for storing and preserving the butter, and possibly other dairy products as well.

Very clever indeed.