County: Tipperary Site name: DER230, Killoran
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 97E0160
Author: Sarah Cross, Lisheen Archaeological Project
Site type: Road - unclassified togher
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 622161m, N 666699m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.750901, -7.671730
This track was 45m in length and 1.5–2m in width, dating from 1500–1195 BC and composed of bundles of brushwood and roundwood laid longitudinally. Differences in depth and character over the length of the track point to many episodes of repair. There were six phases of activity. In Phase 1 two pits were dug in the glacial till. Phase 2 saw these pits filled with material from the neighbouring site DER265, a fulacht fiadh (see Excavations 1997, No. 503). Phase 3 was the construction of a foundation layer for the track, sometimes including mineral soil. Phase 4 was the laying of a smooth surface. There were two repair phases: Phase 5 was fairly uniform across the length of the track and Phase 6 differed from cutting to cutting and has been recorded as subphases. There was no repair of the track at its western landfall but it was probably extended into this area at the time of the first general repair.
The site began at the eroding fen edge with stands of marginal alder. It finished at a low ridge in the glacial till which would have created an area of drier peat. Between the shore and the ridge ran the main outflow channel for the bog. The track overlay a silting episode on the east side of the discharge channel. It was closely bounded by alder trees. The extension of the site westwards shows that the fen was flooding back over the dryland margin through the use of the track.
A split roundwood with two notches cut in its edge was found in the base of the track at its landfall. It lay horizontally with the rest of the foundation material. There is nothing about the form of the object which would indicate its function. It was probably a component in a more complex object and was deposited as scrap.
The pits pre-dating the track were filled with a broader spread of burnt stone. Stratigraphically, it would seem that the track was only slightly more recent than the fulacht fiadh DER265, but there was nothing in the form of the track which respected the fulacht. While the track passed very close to the fulacht and to the wooden platform attached to it, it did not diverge to reach the fulacht.
Minorco Lisheen Ltd, Killoran, Moyne, Co. Tipperary
