County: Offaly Site name: CLONAD (OF-CLO0007)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: OF018-084 Licence number: 04E0725
Author: Eoin Corcoran, Archaeological Development Services Ltd.
Site type: Road - class 3 togher
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 647175m, N 723886m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.263228, -7.292885
This site was described by the IAWU in 2001 as a tertiary togher of fragmented mixed brushwood, light roundwood and twigs orientated from north-west to south-east (IAWU 2002). The majority of the elements were closely set and longitudinally laid, with the remainder being irregularly laid and dispersed. Woodworking was evidenced by the presence of two chisel points and one wedge point. The site lay in moderately humified Sphagnum and Eriophorum with some ericaceous wood fragments. The cutting was located over the only recorded sighting of this site. The cutting measured 5m by 3m.
This would appear to be the remains of a small north-east/south-west-orientated trackway, though the orientation was difficult to discern due to the restricted amount of wood present. Given that the wood did not extend beyond the small area of the cutting, this was either a very localised track over a particularly wet area of bog or it once extended further and has since been destroyed. As the site was visible on the field surface and the wood was in a poor state of preservation, it seems likely that this site originally continued for a longer distance but has been substantially damaged by machine activity.
References
IAWU 2002 Archaeological survey report: Clonad Bog, Co. Offaly. Unpublished report commissioned by Dúchas, the Heritage Service.
Whitaker, J. and Corcoran, E. 2020. Final Excavation Report for Clonad Bog, Co. Offaly (Licences: 04E0722- 04E0729), Irish Archaeological Consultancy Ltd., 2019. Unpublished report prepared by IAC Archaeology.
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