Irish turf crafts - clocks, Celtic crosses, picture frames, paperweights, jewellery and other souvenirs.

Island Turf Crafts gifts are hand-crafted using 5000 year-old Irish turf from some of Ireland's oldest boglands. The unique antique brown finish highlights every detail of the delicate ancient Celtic designs.

The turf made gifts include ornaments, clocks, Celtic crosses, picture frames, paperweights, jewellery and other souvenirs.

Turf is partially decomposed vegetation, which has accumulated in waterlogged places for thousands of years. One sixth of the land was once covered in turf bogland. Island Turf Crafts is making use of this vast resource to make small cultural pieces to bring a small piece of Ireland into your home.

It all started in 1980 when Brian McGirr's hobby began to evolve into a business. Brian has a background as a craft teacher and originally carved musical instruments from mahogany including full sized celtic harps. He then moved on to using turf sourced from bogland in different parts of Ireland.

Henry and Doreen Quinn gather-in the turf on the shores af Lough Neagh where it has been accumulating for the last 5000yrs

Traditionally in rural Ireland turf is cut into sods, dried and used as a fuel. A traditional turf bog can be seen in the photograph. Brian, however, uses a kiln to dry the turf, which is then processed in order to ready the material for carving into the unique pieces with their intricate Celtic designs. Brian can be seen carving a traditional Celtic cross in his workshop at Coalisland, County Tyrone.

The pieces are also proving to be very successful with corporate clients, particularly for corporate gifts and presentation trophies.