The Famine Walls

Visitors to southwest Ireland notice the rock walls everywhere - obviously dividing land into sections and keeping cattle and sheep fenced in.

But these walls are called "famine walls."  The older ones were built for two purposes: first to clear the land of rocks so the land could be used and secondly, during the potato famine of the early 1800's,  churches and landlords paid men to build these - mostly in food - so men could keep their pride about working.