County: Offaly Site name: DERRYNAGUN BOG, Lemanaghan
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0580
Author: Ellen OCarroll, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Platform - peatland
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 618300m, N 727294m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.295631, -7.725482
Excavations were carried out in the Lemanaghan area of County Offaly as part of the Bord na Móna Archaeological Mitigation Project. These excavations were undertaken to resolve known archaeological sites so that Bord na Móna could resume peat production in areas that had been cleared of archaeology. Eleven of the excavations were carried out in Derrynagun Bog (see Excavations 2000, Nos 817–25 and 827–8), which is situated directly south of the Ferbane to Ballycumber road.
Excavations here exposed a small wooden platform similar in size and form to comparable structures excavated in the surrounding vicinity. There was 0.18m of peat removed from over the site, which comprised two layers. The uppermost layer, 0.15m deep, consisted of laminated, bright yellow, poorly humified sphagnum peat within which bog bean and reeds were found, suggesting that open water was present over the site. The peat underneath the yellow pool peat was also sphagnum peat but was a lot more decomposed and had inclusions of eriophorum. The site was located within this peat.
The site was composed of approximately 160 brushwood elements, two small planks and some pegs. It was 1.11m wide, 0.4m deep and 3.1m in length. The brushwoods were flanked by two roundwoods arranged in a linear fashion. The brushwoods ranged from 0.32m to 0.16m in length and from 0.02m to 0.03m in diameter. The two roundwoods were 1.85m and 2.85m long and 0.1m and 0.09m in diameter and were both broken along their length. The brushwood was longitudinally placed in a north–south direction towards the back of the cutting but had been disturbed towards the front, probably by the ditch-cutting by Bord na Móna. Some of the ends of the brushwoods were torn, which may indicate that the wood was hastily gathered and collected for construction or use in the site. It is possible that the wood was intended to serve as a small, dry platform for hunting or other such activities, which hopefully will be ascertained through the analysis of the peat and further research into the area during the post-excavation stage.
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