Road - class 3 togher

The National Monuments Service's description

The site (Wth 1.05m; D 0.135m) is orientated SSE-NNW and composed of birch roundwoods (diam. 0.07-0.13m) in a parallel arrangement with some brushwood and twigs between the principal roundwoods. A single substructural birch roundwood is set at an oblique angle to the upper roundwoods. Toolmarks were recorded on several roundwoods. A piece of stone similar to the flags of SMR OF006-001001 rested on one of the roundwoods and the proximity of the sites suggests these two site are related.

Not visible at ground level. Described by Halpin (1984) as a stone roadway and timber trackway found c. 1m deep in Bord na Mona Blackwater works in 1983, running between Bloomhill townland Co. Offaly and Ballynahownwood Co. Westmeath. He assigned a medieval date to the trackway. Excavated by Breen (1987, 32) who described the stone flagstone roadway as lying on a foundation of peat with a layer of brushwood underneath. Finds included Horseshoes of 13th-century type along with two leather shoe-fragments which were found above the stone roadway. According to local folklore this trackway may formed part of an old pilgrimage route running between the monastery of Clonmacnoise (OF005-027001-) and the old churchyard (WM035-003----) at Killomenaghan (Breen, Parkes & Bradshaw 1988, 332-3).

Compiled by: Irish Archaeological Wetland Unit (University College Dublin).

Date of upload: 23 May 2011

References

Breen, C.T., Parkes, H. and Bradshaw, R. 1988 Excavation of a roadway at Bloomhill Bog, County Offaly. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 88C, 321-39.