Road - unclassified togher

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on the E face of a machine-cut turf bank, in raised bog. A long timber plank (0.23m x 0.17m) is exposed for 1m at the base of the bank. It lies 2.4m below the present surface of the bog and has been damaged by machinery and has dried out. Wood also protrudes c. 2m N of the plank at the base of the turf bank, and a round-wood projects out c. 5m further N at the same depth. According to the landowner other exposed planks are usually c. 2m long with pins, one at either end of the plank. Some other pieces of timber lie about, badly damaged by machine cutting. A slipper and shawl were recovered from this bog c. 40 years ago and these are now in the custody of the museum. The togher was inspected by the museum in 1970 and again in May 1973. A section of trackway examined in 1973 consisted of eight planks aligned on a N-S axis. The planks rested on a beam placed under the lengthwise edges on each side. They were anchored by occasional long pegs driven into prepared holes in the planks near their extremities, extending beyond the under-beams. The transverse planks were roughly dressed with rectangular cross-section and averaged 2.8m x 0.15m x c. 0.08m T. One under-beam was similar to the transverse planks, while the other has a circular cross-section (diam. 0.12m) and retained its original bark. The pegs were rectangular in cross-section (diam. 0.03-0.04m) and tapered (NMI, Topographical Files, 1973).

The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Tipperary. Vol. 1 - North Tipperary' compiled by Jean Farrelly and Caimin O'Brien (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload/revision: 22 September 2008