Road - class 3 togher

The National Monuments Service's description

The site (L 3.05m; D 0.09m) is composed of planks, roundwoods and brushwood. The planks are concentrated towards the SE end of the site and are orientated E-W. A number of roundwoods and brushwood lie parallel to the planks and are overlain by roundwoods which are predominantly orientated N-S. These roundwoods directly overlie one of the planks towards the centre of the site. It is possible that the site was composed of a substructure of varied composition which was overlain by roundwoods but this is difficult to confirm within the present exposure. The planks consist mostly of radially split timbers and further evidence for woodworking is attested by metal-cut wedge points on the roundwoods. Wood species include birch, alder and oak. It sits in moderately humified Sphagnum peat. The site has been dendrochronologically dated to AD 578-9 (Q9283). It is one of thirteen sites in close proximity in a 30m stretch of this drain, including SMR OF015-252---- and OF-LEM 0198, located immediately to the NW. These sites may be continuances of SMR OF015-247---- but both have been exposed to different degrees of machine damage and it is difficult to compare directly the composition of the sites. A further possible remnant of this site may be represented by SMR OF015-246----, located 17m to the NW. This would imply that the site is clearly orientated in a NW-SE direction. Other possible sections of the site may be indicated by SMR OF015-248---- 4.2m to the SE, SMR OF015-250----, 26.9m to the SE and SMR OF015-253----, 10.9m to the NW. The last sites have comparable dendrochronological dates of AD 587±9 or later (Q9284) and AD 616±9 or later (Q9289), respectively.

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

Date of upload: 23 May 2011