The Grufán and the Spade, Abandoned Famine Lazy Potato Beds, Kicrohane, West Cork.
The Grufán is a tool used in famine times to grub out plots from sods where a spade would not be suitable. It is still used to batted down clods after ploughing.
West of Kilcrohane there are a number of exampled of lazy beds abandoned after the famine, never dug. In 1841 the Munitervara Peninsula had a population of around 10,000, one of the most densely populated non urban areas in the world excluding bog, mountain and lake There are around 1,00o now on the Peninsula.
Pingback: The Potato. From Peru to the Great Irish Famine. | West Cork History