County: Tipperary Site name: DER234, Killoran
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 97E0160
Author: Sarah Cross, Lisheen Archaeological Project
Site type: Road - road/trackway
Period/Dating: Iron Age (800 BC-AD 339)
ITM: E 622158m, N 666670m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.750640, -7.671776
This was a disturbed wooden track dating from 795–395 BC. There were runners and pegs and some brushwood but no finished surface. While flooding could have damaged the site, it is most likely that the surface was deliberately removed prior to the track being covered by peat. The wood was very poorly preserved, suggesting prolonged exposure before being covered in peat. There was a good deal of variation in the remains: in places only brushwood and pegs remained, in others there were clear runners.
The site lay below DER75 (Excavations 1997, No. 521). The depth of peat between the two sites became deeper as the sites extended into the bog, since the peat was becoming wetter and perhaps accumulating more quickly. Both sites showed a distinct slope of about 1m over 40m. At three points pegs from DER75 intruded on DER234, but there was certainly a lapse of time between the use of the two tracks.
The site lay in well-humified wood fen. The large number of stumps and fallen trunks above and beside the track show that the site was in an active marginal forest which appears to have been mostly alder. The site was constructed on a slope in which the developing bog was held in pockets by the roots of trees. A discharge channel ran along the course of the track.
Minorco Lisheen Ltd, Killoran, Moyne, Co. Tipperary
