County: Longford Site name: DERRYNAGRAN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0971
Author: Jane Whitaker, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Road - class 2 togher
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 607139m, N 761421m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.602588, -7.892131
This site was along the eastern drain edge of the Bord na Móna production field that contained 02E0967, 02E0968 and 02E0972 (Nos 1269 and 1270, Excavations 2002 and No. 1273, Excavations 2002), along its western drain edge. This site was 7m east of 02E0972. A single cutting, measuring 4m north–south (along the drain edge) by 3m, was excavated.
The overlying peat was a maximum of 0.6m thick and was poorly humified Sphagnum that contained some heather roots, frequent dense patches of Eriophorum and occasional Mynyanthes seeds, indicative of relatively wet conditions. The togher site was composed of around eleven parallel roundwoods oriented north-west/south-east, with some interspersed brushwood. The site was a maximum of 1.6m wide, and most of the elements were broken along their lengths. The roundwoods ranged from 50mm to 90mm in diameter, and the brushwood ranged from 22mm to 49mm in diameter. Overlying the togher was a damaged hurdle panel, 0.7m wide and 1.5m long. The panel was composed of four east–west-oriented sails with rods woven over and under them in groups of three and four. The method of hurdle construction was similar to the hurdle panels exposed in the excavation of 02E0973 (No. 1274, Excavations 2002), 58m to the east.
The construction elements of the togher site had several toolmarked ends that were mainly wedge shaped, with some chisel points also recorded. During the sampling of this layer a rim fragment of a turned wooden vessel was recovered. Excavation of the surrounding peat revealed ten further fragments of an incomplete vessel. It appears to have been a small, oval, shallow, turned bowl. It was made from alder and was c. 50–60mm high; its surviving diameter was 130–150mm. The peat in which it was found was very well humified and was smooth and pasty in texture. Test-trenches were excavated in an attempt to trace the site further, and the results of these, combined with field-surface exposures nearby, may extend the surviving length of this site to c. 22m.
Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Fairview, Dublin 3
