County: Offaly Site name: RATHDRUM
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 05E0551
Author: Sinclair Turrell, ADS Ltd, Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Fairview, Dublin 3.
Site type: Secondary togher
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 643226m, N 728488m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.304920, -7.351448
This site was surveyed by the IAWU in June 2001 and identified as a secondary togher orientated north-west/south-east, running for a distance of 52.13m (OF-RDM0002). Three cuttings were excavated and a further six sightings were recorded.
This was a generally poorly preserved brushwood trackway running east–west across the bog, the cuttings revealing just small scattered patches of fragmented brushwood, some displaying wedge- or chisel-cut worked ends, together with a few small pegs. It is of unknown date, although its depth below the surface suggested that it may be prehistoric. Dating of wood samples should provide a clearer idea of the date of the trackway. It did not appear to run all the way across the bog and may have been built to provide access to the resources of the bog. However, in places this trackway was near the current level of the base of the drains and it may be that it does, in fact, continue further but is not currently visible.
