County: Offaly Site name: BALLYBEG BOG, Barrysbrook/Clonin/ Toberdaly/Togher
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 01E0663
Author: Cara Murray, Irish Archaeological Wetland Unit
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 653333m, N 733606m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.349989, -7.198963
This bog was surveyed on behalf of Dúchas as part of the Peatland Survey 2001. It is 8km south of Miltownpass to the west of Rhode village and north-east of Croghan Hill. Ballybeg Bog is currently in commercial milled peat production by Bord na Móna, and covers an area of 808ha. The site of a togher, ‘the Togher of Croghan’ (SMR 10:18(011, 012)), was known from the southern limit of this bog prior to the survey.
A total of 105 sites were identified in this bog. All are located in the southern part, between the area north of the Togher of Croghan and south of a former lake, Lough Nashade. They consist of 31 toghers, one platform, 29 deposits of worked wood, 26 deposits of unworked wood, a dug-out canoe, a prehistoric occupation site and a barrow, along with one complex and one feature. None of the toghers are substantial structures intended to cross the entire bog. Most sites appear to have facilitated utilisation of areas of the bog. Many of the larger structures, such as the barrow, the occupation site, the complex and the platform, are situated close to what may have been an earlier lake shore, and the dug-out canoe was discovered within the area of the former lake.
A total of 25 artefacts were recovered from this bog, many from the vicinity of the occupation site and the barrow (c. 15m apart), including pieces of worked flint and a stone adze. Two wooden artefacts were also recovered, an ex situ bow stave and a portion of a wooden yoke. The dated sites in Ballybeg Bog range from the early Bronze Age for the occupation site to the late Bronze Age for brushwood associated with the wooden yoke.
Department of Archaeology, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4
