County: Offaly Site name: KILLAGHINTOBER BOG, Tumbeagh
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 99E0448
Author: Ellen O'Carroll, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Road - class 3 togher
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 616591m, N 729403m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.314646, -7.751016
This site was the remains of a brushwood togher on the surface of a Bord na Móna production field. A cutting measuring 1.5m x 2m was established over the site. Excavation revealed the milled remains of the upper elements of a linear brushwood togher and two lower, substructural layers of brushwood, pegs and twigs.
The brushwood togher measured 1.7m in maximum width and was traced for a length of 14m. The site was composed of a milled superstructural brushwood and roundwood layer and a lower, substructural layer orientated east-west. The superstructural layer of the togher was badly milled. It was composed of two roundwoods and around eleven brushwoods, as well as several outlying fragments. Half of the elements run transversely, and half of them were placed longitudinally. There were also three pegs associated with this layer, one of which was worked to a simple chisel point.
Two lower, substructural layers were revealed underneath the milled upper surface. The lower layers were composed of brushwood averaging 15mm in diameter, pegs and some twig packing. The pegs were found along the edges of the togher. Some were worked to a point at one end.
The remains of a leather shoe were found on the Bord na Móna field surface c. 70m south of this togher. The shoe had been exposed on the field surface for some time and had been badly damaged. A cutting was placed around the shoe, and the area was trowelled, but there was no evidence of any wood. There was no indication of wood in the surrounding area. It is possible that this shoe was originally associated with the togher (99E0448) and became dislodged during Bord na Móna milling.
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