Peat Cutting

Submitted by Owen McCafferty on Wed, 2009-11-25

Peat Cutting in the area

Traditionally peat has been used for warmth and cooking for hundreds of years.

There are three main tools used to do this. The first tool to be used is the flaughter spade which is used to cut away the fibrous, mossy top to the peat bank.

Once the top layer has been removed, cuts are made along the bank using the rutter, this determines the thickness of the peat to be cut.

Lastly the tusker was put into action. The person using this tool would bear down with all his weight to actually cut the peat, he would then twist the tool to remove it from the bank and allow the thrower to throw the peat back onto the top of the bank for stacking and drying.

The peats were left where they were thrown for a few days until they were dry enough not to flop over, then they would be stacked into rows and left to dry for 3 or 4 weeks. The rows of drying peats are known as storrows and when the weather was particularly bad for drying they would be remade into astorrows which were larger than storrows.

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