Up here in the Dromara Foothills, the marks of time stretch back far back, and have not been overwritten so much by the new ways.
We went up to the slopes of Slieve Croob yesterday, about 3 miles away.
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| The Mournes tucked between Slieve Garrann and Legananny Mountain |
Another beautiful alpine day
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| Distant Slieve Gullion in County Armagh |
Famine fields, or lazy beds are the remnants of potato cultivation during the 1800's. The repeated failures of the potato harvest in Ireland in the mid 1800's caused famine and devastation. It is a mark of the size of population and the search for new cultivation places that the fields are found in the steepest most difficult places. Their abandonment has fossilized them, whereas the lower, better fields have continued in use, and the beds have been ploughed out.
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| Slieve Garron |
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| the snow lies in the 'furrows' between the beds. All these fields were dug by hand, |
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| these abandoned potato fields are turned over to grazing now; the field marking remain as testament to hard times |
It's hard to find a great deal about lazy beds on the web. Anybody who can point up more information, please do.
