County: Longford Site name: LOUGH BANNOW 2, Corlea
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0458
Author: Noel Dunne, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Road - class 2 togher
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 609851m, N 763328m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.619686, -7.851089
This togher extends in an east-north-east/west-south-west direction across two milled fields for a minimum visible distance of 35.5m. Two cuttings were excavated along its length, with Cutting A being the easternmost one. The investigations revealed that the site was constructed with longitudinal roundwoods, brushwood and twigs. It ranged in width from 0.95m to 2.5m and was up to 0.3m thick. The upper walking surface was located at a depth of 0.05–0.45m.
In Cutting A, the principal surface elements consisted of eight roundwoods or heavy brushwood, arranged in four pairs. Similar paired rods were evident at the base of the structure in Cutting B. In that cutting, densely packed longitudinals formed the upper levels and were bordered by heavier roundwood elements. A small number of transverses may have been deliberately inserted through the upper levels in order to counteract a possible tendency of the longitudinal rods to spring upwards, because of the weight exerted by traffic on the trackway. The lowest level in Cutting B was orientated north-east/south-west, in contrast to the general east-north-east/west-south-west direction of the site. This level was aligned on Site 13A of the 1999 reassessment, which is a togher that is located in the drain face only a short distance to the north-east. It is possible that the present site was constructed on top of Site 13A in Cutting B. Additional timbers were encountered at a depth of 0.2m in the peat directly underlying the excavated structure in that cutting and almost definitely belong to a new site. Following on from the 1999 numbering sequence, this possible new structure was labelled 37A but was not investigated further as the feature was located under the water level in the adjacent drain and was consequently waterlogged.
A large number of pegs and posts were used to hold the togher in position. These displayed a variety of worked ends, including wedge-, chisel- and pencil-point examples. Many of the tips were blunted and buckled from being hammered into the bog and impinging on lower elements of the structure.
Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Fairview, Dublin 3
