County: Offaly Site name: TOGHER
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0930
Author: Ellen OCarroll, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 650998m, N 732878m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.343679, -7.234139
This licence covers the excavation of some wood in a palaeo-channel (the remains of an old stream or water source) in Ballybeg Bog, Co. Offaly (No. 1583, Excavations 2002, 02E0932). There was no orientation to the wood, and it did not appear to have been a carefully constructed wooden site. Excavation of the site revealed four large brushwoods and a scatter of smaller brushwoods. The wood was in poor condition where it had been exposed on the surface of the bog and was concentrated in the centre of the palaeo-channel, where it had no apparent orientation. The brushwoods, which have been identified as Corylus avellana (hazel), averaged 0.02m in diameter and were 0.1–1m long. Two of the larger brushwoods were cut to wedge-points. A small amount of bark remained on the wood. The palaeo-channel was quite wide and shallow at this point, 1.8m wide and 0.6m deep. There was a thin layer of dark brown organic peat at the bottom of the channel, containing twigs and leaves.
Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Fairview, Dublin 3
