County: Longford Site name: CORLEA BOG, Cloonbreany
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Barry Raftery, Department of Archaeology, University College Dublin
Site type: Road - class 1, 2 and 3 toghers
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 609449m, N 762820m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.615129, -7.857195
Corlea 1
The Iron Age corduroy road was further excavated, confirming the broad details of constructional technique. Numerous examples of worked timbers were taken away for further analysis. Otherwise, the only find was a wooden pot-stave.
Corlea 2
A brushwood trackway first examined in 1985, was more extensively investigated in 1986. A continuous 10m-long cutting showed that it had been made by laying down longitudinal bundles of birch rods in three layers giving a thick, dry walking surface, These rods are almost certainly a product of coppiced woodland. A single row of pegs along one edge of the trackway was probably intended to secure it in position.
Corlea 3
This was first noticed in the face of a Bord na Móna drainage channel. Upon investigation it proved to have incorporated in its construction both longitudinal birches and a carefully-made birch hurdle. Only 6.5m of this track have been as yet uncovered but it will be interesting to see if the track made use of further hurdles.
Corlea 4
This ran across Corlea 3 and is little removed from it in time. It is the crudest and roughest of the tracks uncovered and was made by throwing down branches of birch and oak longitudinally on the bog surface. There were many spaces between the timbers, giving the structure an appearance of impermanence.
Corlea 5
This was almost totally obliterated before its existence was brought to notice. It consisted of a series of narrow oak planks laid end to end on short transverse sleepers. Perfectly drilled circular holes in the ends of some of the planks suggest that they came from a dismantled structure of some sort. Fragments of a wooden shovel or spade lay close to the fragmentary track.
Chronology
Corlea 1 has been dated to 148 BC on the basis of dendrochronological analysis carried out by Dr M.G.L. Baillie, Queen's University, Belfast. A radiocarbon date of 1020 ± 30 bc has been established, courtesy of Dr Ian Laming, Groningen University, for wood from Corlea 2. Wood from Corlea 3 and 4 is currently being subjected to radiocarbon dating in Groningen. These tracks are either broadly contemporary with Corlea 2 or somewhat earlier. Samples for dendrochronological analysis have been taken from Corlea 5 and are now in Queen's University, Belfast. It is not, however, certain if these are suitable for accurate dating. This track is higher than any of the others in the bog (hence its almost total destruction) and may date to the Early Historic or early medieval period.
