Turbary is the ancient right to cut turf, or peat, for fuel on a particular area of bog.
[1] The word may also be used to describe the associated piece of bog or peatland and, by extension, the material extracted from the turbary.
[2] Turf was widely used as fuel for cooking and domestic heating but also for commercial purposes such as evaporating brine to produce salt.
In the New Forest of southern England, a particular right of turbary belongs not to an individual person, dwelling or plot of land, but to a particular hearth and chimney.
[4] Geographic regions of turbary works in Europe include the Netherlands, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and The Broads in Norfolk and Suffolk, England, and the Audomarois marshlands near Saint-Omer, France[5][6] The term is also used in colloquial language by older generations in Ireland, in places such as County Clare, to refer to the area where turf is cut, or to the material extracted.