2000:0832 - CORHILL BOG, Lisdermot, Offaly

This excavation was carried out in Corhill Bog, Co. Offaly, as part of the 2000 Bord na Móna Archaeological Mitigation Project. This site was recorded in the 1996 IAWU survey as a brushwood and roundwood togher and was traced for a length of over 40m. As with 00E0399 (see Excavations 2000, No. 830), the length of the site has been doubled by this season’s work. This site was very similar in many ways to No. 830. It was identified along a single field surface and ran in a north-west/south-east direction. It was recorded as being 2m in width and was composed of transverse brushwood and roundwood rods. The central portion of the site was the best preserved and was noted to contain heavier elements. As with 00E0399, there were several additional sites along the same field surface, with similar construction, orientation and composition. It should be noted that the two linear structures 00E0399 and 00E0441 were located on adjacent Bord na Móna production fields. This site also connected with the second of two toghers exposed in a cutting excavated by Ellen OCarroll (see Excavations 2000, No. 829, Track B). This excavation, along with No. 829 (Track B), has resolved eleven structures that had previously been separately recorded.

The first of two cuttings excavated was located at the westernmost extent of the site. This cutting, measuring 2m x 3m, contained two transverse roundwoods. There was very little peat cover remaining over the site, and as a result these roundwoods had been badly damaged by the milling process and were very dried out. They were 57mm and 78mm in diameter and were 0.32m and 0.85m in length. Neither element was suitable for a dating sample, but it is hoped to have them analysed for species identification. Along the northern side of the cutting beyond the northern tips of the roundwoods the peat had a high eriophorum content.

The second cutting was established to the east of the first. There was also very little peat cover remaining at this location, and excavation revealed badly milled transverse brushwood rods with a single longitudinal roundwood. The brushwood rods ranged from 16mm to 27mm in diameter and from 0.28m to 0.87m in length, while the longitudinal roundwood was 0.08m in diameter and 0.62m in length. The peat along the northern extent of the wood, as in Cutting 1, contained a high quantity of eriophorum. Several locations running westwards between the two cuttings were examined using test-trenches and revealed material similar to that exposed in Cutting 2.

The material uncovered in these two cuttings was very fragmentary. Close examination of the remaining material along the field surface, combined with examination of the IAWU record sheets, would appear to indicate that there are several sites previously recorded as individual sites that link up to form a single linear structure. These sites were all located on the field surface, and all were composed of brushwood and roundwood elements. Their construction appears to have been transverse brushwood rods laid across longitudinal brushwood and roundwood elements. The longitudinal elements were laid roughly north-north-east/south-south-west, although the exact orientation changes in places as the site meanders along the field surface. There are a few places where no evidence for the togher remains. None of these gaps are greater than 5–10m. It must be noted that drainage and the subsequent milling process have created an artificially level ground surface. Any original ground surface undulations have since been erased, which may explain the ‘gaps’ in the togher as it was recorded in July 2000. It is proposed to use dating and species identification to confirm what the investigation of the field surface and the constructional similarities appear to suggest—that this excavation, along with No. 829,  Excavations 2000, (Track B), has resolved eleven previously recorded structures.

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