County: Offaly Site name: CLONCREEN BOG, Ballykilleen
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 03E1222
Author: Jane Whitaker, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Road - class 2 togher
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 660239m, N 727945m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.298380, -7.096320
A secondary togher, composed of roundwood and brushwood elements and oriented north-south, was identified during the 2002 Peatland Survey and recorded as being 2.5m in width. The site was recorded on the field surface and in the adjacent drain face. The wood was longitudinally laid. A date of 2116–1745 BC was obtained after the survey. Two cuttings measuring 2m by 4m were recommended for excavation in the mitigation strategy. However, the site appeared to be very fragmentary and a single 2m by 4m cutting was established over the field surface remains. During the initial cleaning of the site after pre-excavation photography, it was discovered that the wood chips scattered over the surface of the bog were the only surviving remains of the site. Attempts to relocate the recorded drain face exposure were unsuccessful and no trace of the site remained. Information obtained from the IAWU after the excavation season was completed revealed that a significant level of sampling had been carried out on many of the sites selected for excavation. The drain face exposure recorded in 2002 had, in fact, been 100% sampled. The cutting was abandoned and the excavation discontinued.
Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Dublin 3
