a cottier textile industry and the contribution of fishing allowed a massive population expansion. Land was let by the 'gneeve' i.e. the grass of one cow or one twelfth of a ploughland. The contribution of the wife by keeping poultry and spinning was important. Between 1766 and 1821 the number of households in the Durrus area increased by 60/69%, the population rose significantly. From the land appropriations of the 1650s and 1660s, to the Rising of 1798 and the Napoleonic Wars there was a long period of peace and prosperity. The gradual introduction of those with expertise and the new technology to improve farming practices, contributed to a prosperity, which engendered rapid population expansion. During this period, South Munster was transformed into a major agricultural area, centred on the Port of Cork. Cork City underwent a phenomenal expansion, with rapid population growth with hinterland immigration and from abroad. Central to its growth was the provisioning of the Royal Navy for what was termed "wet goods" (dairy products, salted and cured meats). Dry goods for the Royal Navy were provided from East Anglia. Important in securing Royal Navy contracts were London based families with Cork connections, such as the Southwells (also of Kinsale), and descendants of the Boyle/Shannon families, who were influential in official circles at the time. The benefits reached into the furthest peninsulas, old tradition has it that people travelled from Kilcrohane to Cork with butter, and from as far as Dursey on the Beara Peninsula, to Cork with pigs. A considerable amount of the trade would have been sea-borne, in small wooden vessels, to Cork. Vallancey Survey 1778 General Charles Vallancey was sent to Ireland to assist in a military survey, remained and became an authority on Irish antiquities. He wrote a report on the West Cork area which should also hold true for Durrus at the period, 'there was only one road between Cork and Bantry; you may now proceed by eight carriage roads beside several horse tracks branching off from these great roads, from Bantry the country is mountainous and from the high road has the appearance of being barren and very thinly populated; yet the valleys abound with, corn and potatoes and the mountains are covered with black cattle in 1760, twenty years ago it was so thinly inhabited an army of 10,000 men could not possible have found subsistence between Bantry and Bandon. The