2005:1302 - RATHDRUM, Offaly

This was a primary togher running for 458m on a north-east/south-west orientation, surveyed by the IAWU in July 2001 (OF-RDM0009). Two dendro dates, of AD 554/555 and AD 550±9 or later, were obtained from this site. It was originally planned to excavate five cuttings along the length of this trackway. However, since some of these cuttings contained very little wood, a sixth cutting was added to the programme. The site was also recorded at fourteen sightings.
This trackway crosses the bog from north-east to south-west and was clearly built to provide a walkway across the bog at its narrowest point. The trackway, which was generally quite poorly preserved, was of mixed construction. It typically consisted of oak planks, up to 3.19m in length and 0.24m in width, laid on transverse timbers. In places these were pegged through central mortise holes, while elsewhere there was no mortise and side pegs had been used. In one cutting it seems that two timbers had been laid alongside each other to provide a sufficiently broad walking surface and there was also evidence that these had been wedged against each other. Pine had been used in Cutting 4 and yew in Cutting 5, giving the impression that the trackway may have been constructed from whatever timber happened to be readily available at the time.