  We analyze the perturbative expansion of a condensate in the O(N) non-linear
sigma model for large N on a two dimensional finite lattice. On an infinite
volume this expansion is affected by an infrared renormalon. We extrapolate
this analysis to the case of the gluon condensate of Yang-Mills theory and
argue that infrared renormalons can be detected by performing perturbative
studies even on relatively small lattices.
