Road - class 1 togher

The National Monuments Service's description

Discovered in 2005 and investigated in September 2006, it was found to consist of a substantial togher orientated WNW-ESE that ran across industrial peatland from the Inny River on the W to an area of higher bog to the E. The recorded length of the trackway was 657m, but it was seen to extend beyond both limits. The trackway was investigated in a single cutting and 43 sightings of the trackway in drainage ditches were also recorded. The excavation exposed a structure composed of tightly packed transversely-laid oak planks, most of which had been mortised and fixed in place with roundwood pegs. The planks measured up to 4.4m in length, 0.3m in width and 0.06m in thickness. The substructure consisted of light brushwoods, plank fragments and wood chips which were scattered across the surface of the bog. Some of these elements had been arranged into three roughly longitudinal lines of brushwoods. A radio-carbon determination from the superstructure provided a date of 1200–820 bc (Whitaker and Leahy 2007; Whitaker 2009). A second trackway was discovered to the east immediately alongside it (WM002-039----).

Compiled by: Paul Walsh

Date of upload: 7 April 2014

References

Whitaker, J. 2009 Mayne Bog, Plank trackway. In I. Bennett (ed.) Excavations 2006: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 545-6, no. 2056. Bray. Wordwell.

Whitaker, J. and Leahy, D. 2007 Preliminary report on the excavation of a plank trackway in Mayne Bog, Co. Westmeath. Unpublished report (License number 06E0928), January 2007. National Monuments Service.