County: Longford Site name: DERRYNAGRAN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0967
Author: Jane Whitaker, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Road - class 3 togher and Platform - peatland
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 607049m, N 761371m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.602140, -7.893492
This site was recorded during survey work in 1999 as a possible togher composed of a substantial spread of roundwood with occasional brushwoods and split timbers, 0.16–0.3m below the field surface. There were also truncated roundwoods (oriented east–west) visible in the opposing, western drain edge.
A single cutting, 4m by 4m, placed along the drain edge was recommended for excavation. This site was revealed to be an unusual, combined togher and platform structure, composed of five layers of wood. Short lengths of trackway extended both east and west from the platform for a minimum length of 8m. It is possible that the western trackway originally extended farther west, but the adjoining fields were considerably lower, and no further traces of the site were detected in these fields. The trackway was constructed to the outer limits of the platform at its western and eastern sides, at which points the platform was composed of five layers of parallel roundwood and brushwood. These layers lay at different angles to one another. The upper layer of the platform (Context 2) was 0.2m higher than the trackway sections to the east and west.
Several platform sites have been excavated and dated during the Bord na Móna mitigation works; however, none of them has, to date, been found to incorporate a trackway in this manner. Dates received so far from these platform sites range from the Iron Age to the late medieval period. The function of these small platform structures is still uncertain, but both OCarroll (2001) and Raftery (1996) suggest that they were used as small hides, for hunting or for gathering organic material from the bogs.
References
OCarroll, E. 2001 The archaeology of Lemanaghan: the story of an Irish bog. Bray.
Raftery, B. 1996 Trackway excavations in the Mountdillon Bogs, Co. Longford, 1985–1991. Transactions of the Irish Archaeological Wetland Unit 3. Dublin.
Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Fairview, Dublin 3
