Page 77 - GAHS Journal Volume 9

GREYSTONES ARCHAEOLOGICAL & HISTORICAL SOCIETY JOURNAL VOLUME 9

The herdsmen and women would move with the animals, but
the young children and older or infirm adults would dwell in family
or clan groups centred around lowland Clachan. This persisted
until the Act of Union and the beginning of the plantation when
groups, from Scotland, Wales, and England, were given land and
displaced the native Irish. The settlers were encouraged to clear
and plant their land, to grow crops for the expanding markets in
the cities both in Ireland and elsewhere. Fences and field
boundaries became common and nomadic animals were
confined to the higher ground all season. Repeated planting and
intensification of demand on the land depleted the soils of
nutrients.

Modern methods

When Arthur Young [5] wrote about Ireland [6] in 1776-9 he
was not impressed with much of the agriculture in the
countryside, but there were some notable exceptions where land
was improving. Later in Samuel Lewis’s publication [7] of 1837

most land was improving with the use of crop rotation, and lime
was used as fertilizer or soil improver.

The Ice age left a significant number of 'Erratic' boulders of
Granite and other rocks of large size. The towns and cities were
beginning to grow so the first signs of industry in Wicklow came
from the land improvement. The Erratic boulders too large to
move were cut down where they set, and the resulting rock was
trimmed by stone cutters to suit building construction locally, and
for transport into the towns and cities.

Limestone was being imported from Sutton via Howth into
Bray, Wicklow and Arklow harbours. Stone was transported over
slightly improved roads to the harbours for improvement and
local construction, or transported to other venues, by sea.

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