Medieval Rabbit Farming
16th November 2020
According to Paul Murphy in his article “Medieval Rabbit Farming and Bannow Island” in Medieval Wexford: Essays in Memory of Billy Colfer, rabbits were brought to Britain by the Normans following their conquest, with rabbit farming becoming established in Ireland by the late twelfth century. Rabbit fur, being soft, durable, and warm, was a desirable material for lining clothing, and their meat was elite eating, as well.
Rabbit farming, then, was a lucrative business. Murphy writes, “a single rabbit in the thirteenth century was worth 3 1/2d. and another 1d. for its fur, far more than a craftsman’s daily wage, maybe five times the price of a chicken and was the equivalent in price of a suckling pig.”
I’ll bet you didn’t know that.