Around Dublin thickets of hazel trees were planted and tended in order to supply the flexible branches that were woven to make the walls of houses – simple buildings, one storey tall, the roofs thatched. To get to them, you walked streets of small stones and gravel, which mostly followed some natural contour like the crest of a hill. The houses stood end-on to the street, which is a pattern familiar from the warehouses along the water at Northern ports;18 so when you found the entrance to the plot you wanted, you had to walk straight through the first house on the plot if you were looking for
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