1997:558 - SHARRAGH, Tipperary

A brief investigation of a substantial wooden togher in the townland of Sharragh, Co. Tipperary, was carried out by the IAWU at the request of the NMHPS in August 1997. This togher was revealed during the mechanical backfilling of drains as part of the conservation process of Sharragh Bog by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS). The bog was in commercial peat production until its purchase in 1992 for conservation purposes by the NPWS.

Large timbers were partially exposed by mechanical excavator while removing a 0.8m depth of peat from an area measuring approximately 7m x 2m. A loose covering of peat remaining over the site was removed by hand. The timbers ranged from 0.1m to 0.26m in width and from 0.9m to 2.3m in length. They were laid transversely, edge to edge, on a substructure of longitudinal brushwood runners and were held in place with pegs, providing an even surface. The timbers were all oak and were a combination of roundwoods, half-split, radial-split and tangentially split planks. The pegs were of alder, ash and hazel, with diameters of 30–40mm.

Evidence of an earlier site was noted in the drain section underneath the wooden trackway. Below the timber togher there was 0.28m of peat, under which a gravel layer was visible. This gravel layer was approximately 2.8m wide and ranged from 0.16m to 0.24m in depth.

The site runs in a north-west/south-east direction and appears to be heading in the direction of a tree-covered dryland island in the bog. A number of intermediary drains between the investigation and the island were examined for additional sightings of the togher but no more sightings were identified.

The wooden togher has been dendrochronologically dated to AD 575±9 or later (Q9516). No further investigation is planned as the site was reburied by the NPWS within the conserved bog.