County: Laois Site name: CASHEL BOG, Ballycarnan/Ballyknockan/Ballyruin/Cashel/Clonaddadoran/Colt
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 05E0824
Author: Sinclair Turrell, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Post row - peatland and Platform - peatland
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 644825m, N 693938m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.994295, -7.332301
Cashel Bog is located to the south-east of the N8 road, 2km south of Portlaoise. There is farmland to the north-west and forestry to the west and south-east, with extensive private peat cuttings to the north and, to a lesser extent, to the south. Cashel Bog covers an area of 242ha and forms part of the Bord na Móna Coolnamona group of works. The bog consists of 106 fields running north–south, with an industrial railway along its north-western edge. The main body of the bog is in production, with some forty fields on the eastern side of the bog out of production and covered in scrub. The drain faces in the production areas were clean, but, at the time of the survey, the water level in the drains was high following heavy rain and many of the fields were covered in unharvested peat. Some natural wood was visible in the drain faces.
Seven sites were identified in Cashel Bog: three post rows, a possible platform and three sightings of archaeological wood. It is thought that two of the post rows (LS-CSL008 and LS-CSL011) may represent the last remains of two Early Christian single plank trackways whose upper surfaces had been removed during the milling process. They date to AD 660–890 and AD 640–780, respectively. The earliest site in the survey was identified at the base of a drain in this bog. LS-CSL004 was dated to 3780–3640 BC. It was identified in a single location and as a result has been classified as a possible platform. The remaining four sites were sightings of archaeological wood and a post row, all of which are considered to be resolved.
Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Dublin 3
