County: Longford Site name: LOUGH BANNOW 2, Corlea
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0454
Author: Noel Dunne, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Road - class 3 togher
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 609784m, N 763268m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.619148, -7.852104
A mass of soft, degraded timbers arranged in the form of a domed arc was located immediately below the milled surface on the west shoulder of a field drain. Excavation showed that the site was quite disturbed owing to pressure from the wheels of Bord na Móna machinery passing close to the edge of the drain in this very wet area of bog. This pressure caused the site to buckle upwards, snapping some of the timbers in the process. Many ended up in vertical or near-vertical positions in the peat and resembled pegs. The excavation work was made more difficult as the site was located at and below the water level of the adjacent drain. Consequently, the degree of waterlogging of the site increased with depth.
The 1999 reassessment concluded that the site was a togher, which extended north-north-west/south-south-east. Most of the elements uncovered in the course of this excavation possessed that orientation but instead appeared to be transverses for a roundwood and brushwood togher that originally ran east-north-east/west-south-west. The site displayed an overall width of 2.3m, and the elements ranged in diameter from 15mm to 150mm. These formed a series of layers, which mainly consisted of transverse elements, but some longitudinal rods were also included. The togher was held in position by a number of genuine posts and pegs that had diameters ranging from 15mm to 75mm. The site is visible in the opposite drain face at a depth of 0.55m, as the surface of the milled field is at a much higher level on that side.
Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Fairview, Dublin 3
