Road - road/trackway

The National Monuments Service's description

Following the line of the 'Rian Bo Phadraig' (Power 1905, 116-7) this road (Wth 3.2m) runs along the E side of the steep Glengowley River valley, in mountainous terrain. It has been heightened and revetted on the downslope side. It is a metalled road which has been gravelled and is used to access forestry. It is sign-posted 'St. Declan's Road to Ardmore' and continues S into Co. Waterford (WA012-001----) (Moore 1999, 69). Further S along the trackway becomes rougher with a low bank on either side, max. H 1m. Towards the county boundary a routeway can be discerned leading up to the pass, with ground falling W towards the glen and rising to the E. The routeway passes through a stone wall which marks the county boundary. A portion of a trackway, indentified with the route of the Rian Bó Phádraig, consisting of two parallel banks (H 0.5m on W side; 0.2m on E side; Wth 2.5m; D 0.7m below ground level) was excavated in 1997 (O'Donnell 1998, 162). It is in Kildanoge townland, on the eastern bank of the Glengalla River, on the slopes of the Knockmealdown Mountains (ibid.). The excavation revealed that a linear U-shaped trench had been dug through a natural gravel bank and the base of the trench had been covered with a layer of water-rolled pebbles (ibid.). These pebbles seem to have been laid down to form a rough surface along the length of the trench (ibid.). There was no direct evidence to date the construction of the trackway, but the unabraded condition of the trench indicates that the feature as it appears today may be of relatively recent construction, perhaps within the last century, although it is likely that it was built on the line of an earlier feature which continued to be used over a long period of time (ibid.).
The road is cross-referenced with:
TS069-001---- (includes TS061-071001-; TS061-071002-; TS061-071003-; TS061-071004-; TS061-071005-; TS061-071006-); TS076-008---- (includes TS076-008---*; TS076-008001*; TS076-008002*; TS076-008003*; TS076-008004*; TS076-008005*; TS076-008006*; TS076-008007*; TS076-008008*; TS076-008009*; TS076-008010*; TS076-008011*; TS076-008012*; TS082-006----; TS082-006---*; TS082-006001*; TS082-006002*; TS082-006003*; TS082-006004*); TS088-074---- (includes TS088-026001*); TS088-026---- (includes TS088-026002*; TS088-026003*; TS091001----; TS091-01001*; TS091-01002*).

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 06 December 2013

References

Moore, M. 1999 Archaeological inventory of county Waterford. Dublin. Stationery Office.

Power, Rev. P. 1905 The Rian Bó Phádraig (the ancient highway of the Decies). Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 35, 110-29.

O'Donnell, M.G. 1999 Excavation of a section of the Rian Bó Phádraig near Ardfinnan. Tipperary Historical Journal, 183-9.

O'Donnell, M. 1998 Rian Bó Phádraig, Kildanoge: Linear earthwork. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 1997: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 162. Bray. Wordwell.