At the outbreak of the Great Famine in 1846 Traill believed that the storage of potatoes in pits would save them from the blight and worked on constructing these from October 1846. However he realised this would not be successful and by December was trying, in vain, to persuade the local landlords to let their tenants keep some grain so that they weren't forced to eat their seed potatoes. Traill established a relief committee for his parish and wrote widely to persuade people to subscribe to it. He was shown in the Illustrated London News visiting a dying man and his family, having been sketched by James Mahoney who said of Traill that "his humanity at the present moment is beyond praise".