Long ago Ireland had been covered in Woodland, a claim echoed by a 19th century survey of Leitrim- A hundred years ago almost the whole country was one continued, undivided forest, so that from Drumshanbo to Drumkeeran, a distance of nine or ten miles, one could travel the whole way from tree to tree by branches. These great forests in Leitrim and on the west side of Lough Allen were denuded for the making for Charcoal for Iron works around Sliabh an Iarainn. Immense piles of cleared timber existed at Drumshanbo in 1782.