In 1986 geologists drilling at Aghnadarragh, just outside Crumlin, for seams of the fossil fuel lignite, came across something every unexpected.

Encased in the layers of sandy mud they found a huge tooth – one that was obviously too big to belong to any local animal.

In fact, this tooth belonged to a woolly mammoth - a massive beast that would have been common on the shores of Lough Neagh thousands of years ago during the ice age.

These huge creatures were ten feet tall and weighed about 9 tons – which is about the same weight as four black taxis.

At one time, herds of these woolly mammoths would have strode across our landscape.

And they would have evolved to cope with the arctic climate of the ice age; their hairy coats grew to 20 inches long and they even developed special glands in their skin which secreted greasy fat into their hair strands for added insulation.

The mammoth tooth that was found at Aghnadarragh was from a modest sized adult, but the remains of larger mammoths may still lie along the shores of Lough Neagh.

In this clip, Emily Murray reveals what the tooth tells us about the diet of these massive creatures.