Road - unclassified togher

The National Monuments Service's description

The Middle (1700-1200 BC) and Late Bronze Ages (c. 1200-800 BC) are represented by the establishment of a field system, three flimsy structures that might be connected with it, fulacht fia 1, this length of path across the pond, and the small four-post structure (7) on top of the ridge. A seasonal pond (diam. 16-17m; D 0.9m) is situated in a hollow that forms a shelf on the W side at the tip of the S-N spur. The pond is probably seasonal and natural but it accumulated organic sediments during the Bronze Age. One Early Neolithic and two medieval sherds of pottery were the only diagnostic artefacts recovered from it, although three pits were cut into the silted pond. Samples for radiocarbon dating show the pond accumulation commencing 2060-1675 cal. BC and terminating by 1510-1125 cal. BC. The pond would have been already silted by the time a fulacht fia 1 was established at its W edge. In the pollen analysis the basal layers are dominated by grasses and sedges which changes to an almost total mixed woodland tree cover of alder and oak. This is followed by a sudden increase in hazel, elm and alder towards the end of the sequence before a return to mixed woodland. The macrofossils were dominated by water beetles, caddis fly and water flea, indicative of shady conditions and perhaps a seasonal, autumnal milieu, but taxa associated with human habitation are scarce.

Twenty two timbers were within the pond deposits and are the remnants of a path that attempted to cross the silting pond E-W, but most of the significant fragments are oak posts driven into the bottom of the pond or are parallel split timbers forming the base-plate of a structure like a jetty (L 5m; Wth 2m) projecting from the E edge of the pond. However, a raised trackway on the surface of the silting was probably intended although not completed to the W edge. A sample from a 30 year old oak provided a C14 date of 6745-6599 cal. BC (UBA 13961), which may have been a piece of recovered bog oak, but a sample from a 20 year old oak returned a C14 date of 3800-3640 cal. BC SUREC 29348), which is as early as the earliest structures in this complex and equally unreliable as the togher would have been built on the surface of the silted pond and is probably Middle to Late Bronze Age in date. (Walsh 2011, vol. 1, 93-97)

True location: ITM ( 675596, 774133)

See the attached plans adapted from Walsh 2011 (vol. 2, figs 6, 7, 21)
ME017-087_1 Site plan;
ME017-087_2 Contour plan;
ME017-087_10 Location;
ME017-087018- Plan;

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 22 March 2022

References

Walsh, F. 2011 M3 Clonee – North of Kells, Contract 4, Navan to Kells and Kells Bypass. Final Report on Kilmainham 1C, Co. Meath. Licence: E003140. Unpublished report, 2 vols, Irish Archaeological Consultancy