County: Offaly Site name: CORHILL BOG, Lisdermot
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0439
Author: Jane Whitaker, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Platform - peatland
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 613563m, N 727471m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.297364, -7.796530
This excavation was carried out in Corhill Bog, Co. Offaly, as part of the 2000 Bord na Móna Archaeological Mitigation Project. This site was first recorded in 1996 by the IAWU when it was identified as a ‘puddle togher’, composed of a central spread of interwoven pieces of longitudinal brushwood, up to two rods deep, within a band 0.67m wide. It was noted that much of the wood was broken; some was identified as alder and hazel; there was a large amount of wood exposed on the field surface; and the association of material was difficult to determine. At the time of the field survey there was a possible second, more fragmentary sighting of this site 8m to the south-east.
The volume of material described in 1996 had reduced significantly in the interim, so much so that excavation revealed that a single roundwood, in very poor condition, was the only surviving remains of this site. It was 0.85m long and 0.51m in diameter and was orientated north-north-east/south-south-west. A cutting measuring 2m x 2m was established to investigate the presence or absence of further wood close to this roundwood, but nothing further was revealed. The roundwood was set into peat that contained patches of sphagnum and eriophorum. It was identified as ash and was otherwise too fragmentary for a dating sample.
Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Fairview, Dublin 3
