County: Offaly Site name: RATHDRUM
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 05E0557
Author: Sinclair Turrell, ADS Ltd, Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Fairview, Dublin 3.
Site type: Secondary togher
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 642938m, N 728312m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.303362, -7.355791
The site was surveyed by the IAWU in July 2001 and identified as a secondary togher running north-east/south-west for 213m (OF-RDM0047). This site could only be traced part of the way across the bog and was not found on the north-eastern side of the bog. Dendro-dating of wood from the site returned a date of AD 547±9 or later. Three cuttings were excavated along the length of this trackway, which was also recorded at a further seven sightings.
This single-plank trackway consisted typically of a plank longitudinal, up to 5.85m long and up to 0.2m wide, resting at either end on a split roundwood transverse, with evidence of central pegs. While the longitudinal was of oak in one cutting, in the others it appeared to be of birch. This trackway appears to be largely contemporary with OF-RDM0009 (see No. 1302 above), which runs parallel to it a few metres to the south-west. It was in a generally poor condition and the possibly birch longitudinals suggests that, like OF-RDM0009, it was also constructed from readily available timber. One of the puzzling aspects of this site was why it was so close in date to OF-RDM0009 and appeared to end in the middle of the bog. Preliminary results from plant macrofossil analysis suggest that this part of the bog was extremely wet at the time and it may be that the attempt to build this trackway was abandoned in favour of OF-RDM0009.
