Our Irish Peach apple. ID'd at last

After spending over 30 years wondering what species of apple this remnant from a former orchard is I stumped up the cash and sent a sample for analysis.
Turns out it's an Irish Peach, introduced from Ireland in 1820. Ripens very early in August and tastes delicious but won't keep more than a couple of weeks.
I'm not sure about just how old our tree is but reckon it certainly dates to the 19th century.

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Fantastic news Dave, it looks delicious

Will you be contacting any growers with regard to taking cuttings etc?

 

It is a very tasty apple Zigs, but it doesn't keep so I think that next year if we've time we'll try dehydrating some to add to breakfast cereals in winter.

Although it's a fairly rare variety there are some companies marketing the trees. We're involved with a group trying to re-establish some of the local ancient orchards so next time I see 'the main man' I'll see if he wants some cuttings. Our son's already got a couple of cuttings established in pots.

Tomorrow I'm going to take some samples from our old pear tree to send off for identification. It's a very old tree and another remnant of the old orchard that our garden was once. It's over 20 feet tall and about a foot thick. The pears, which we've just started picking are quite hard but really tasty when cooked. Picking's a problem though as the tree's so tall!!

 

Great stuff Dave. There was a Pear Tree on the back of Mells Manor that we had to try to plaster round, found a metal lable on it about 30 foot up with a date about 1845.

It was a huge tree.