As we set off on the Joyce Country Challenge hike a couple of weeks ago, the sun was rising behind us over Lough Mask, burning off the early morning fog. The low angle of the sunlight highlighted the ridges of long abandoned potato beds stretching steeply up the hills. These are so-called ‘lazy beds’, even though the digging involved in creating and tending the broad ridges of potatoes on the stony soil of the mountains was very tough work indeed, and definitely not a job for the lazy.
