ABSTRACT
Writing in the early eighth century, the great English historian Bede remarked on the fact that the climate in Ireland was much milder than in Britain. The Irish never saved the hay in summer, nor did they bother to build stables for winter housing of their stock. Since the snow rarely lasted more than three days on the ground, there was simply no need of such things,l Gilbert White of Selboume, writing just over a thousand years later, remarked that 'the southern counties of so mild an island may possibly afford some plants little to be expected within the British dominions'.2 The evidence from Irish sources bears out what these observers have to say, at least in general terms. Agricultural practices probably differed from one region to another, and the nature of the landscape, as well as climatic conditions, must have determined the manner in which people worked the land, but such evidence as we have gives the impression that the Irish economy in the early medieval period was not very different from Irish agriculture today, after due allowance is made for regional variations and the effect of elements such as changes in the dimate.
