Road - road/trackway

The National Monuments Service's description

The great esker known as Esker Riada was the mythical boundary between the north half of Ireland – leath Conn – and the south half – Leath Mogh. It also became the line of one of the five great mythical routes of early Ireland , an tSlÍ Mhór - the great road - extending from Tara to the West (O Lochlainn 1940). Sections of a road survive running from Oldtown village ENE towards Cloonburren motte and bailey (RO056-0010----) (L c. 4 km), and beyond that the route would have extended to the bridge at Clonmacnoise (RO055-008----). From Oldtown the route is said to have proceeded SW and crossed the River Suck at the ford (RO056-027001-) in Correen Big, but no evidence of a road survives in this direction. It is described in 1910 (OS Name Books) as a right of way fit for vehicles on the esker from Cloonfad NE as far as Split Hill (L c. 1.2km). From Split Hill it ran on (L c. 0.5 km) to a point where a gap occurs in the esker and a public road runs N towards Moore. The section W of this point is described as an ‘Ancient Road’ on the 1915 ed. of the OS 6-in map and runs on the esker ridge.

From the village of Oldtown eastwards the road is visible (L c. 100m) in Cloonfad townland as a raised causeway (Wth of top 2.6m; Wth of base 4m; H 0.2-0.3m) rising up the S face of the esker and it morphs into a slight berm (L c. 340m) as it proceeds to the boundary with Cornaveagh. From here it survives (L c. 150m) as a grass-covered carriageway (Wth 3m) with an earthen bank (Wth 3.3; H 0.9m) on the N and the footing of a wall on the remains of a bank on the S side. As it proceeds eastwards it morphs into a carriageway with traces of a wall on either side (L c. 700m) but it becomes obscured in scrub as it approaches Split Hill. Scrub and a quarry have probably removed the section L c. 450m) as far as the gap in the esker where a public road turns N for Moore. A section (L c. 100m) is recorded as a sunken way (Wth of base c. 3m; D c. 0.4m) extending W from this gap and rising up the N side of the esker.

From the gap in the esker the route eastwards is largely on the S side of the esker and if it was ever an ancient road it is replaced by the modern public road. At a gap in the esker c. 1km further east from the Moore road a branch (RO056-009001-) turned N to Cloonburrren church site (RO056-007002-). From the gap in the esker it ran NNE (L c. 180m) and joined the present road (L c. 140m) from where it probably turned E (L c. 330m) and then N (L c. 500m) to join the laneway just E of the graveyard (RO056-007001-). Only a short section of a sunken way (Wth c. 2-8m; L c. 40m) survives at the S end, and the N end is visible as a cropmark of two linear ditch features placed c. 10m apart (L c. 200m) on aerial images (OSAP: 1995). Archaeological testing (01E0260) c. 90m to the W and c. 200m S of the church failed to produce any related material (Henry 2003).

See the attached aerial image taken from the WSW.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 24 August 2010

References

Henry, M. 2003a Cloonburren. No archaeological significance. in I. Bennett (ed.) Excavations 2001: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 254-5, No. 1115. Bray, Wordwell

O Lochlainn, C. 1940 Roadways in Ancient Ireland. in John Ryan (ed.) Féil-sgríbhinn Eóin Mhic Néill: essays and studies presented to Professor Eóin Mac Neill, 465-74. Dublin. Sign of the Three Candles (Reprint 1995; Four Court Press)

OSNB 25-inch. Ordnance Survey Name Books compiled in the course of the 1:2500 survey of Ireland. National Archives of Ireland.

OSAP - Ordnance Survey Aerial Photographs. Photographic collection. Ordnance Survey of Ireland. Dublin.