County: Roscommon Site name: CLOONSHANNAGH
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Isabella Mulhall, Coordinator Bog Bodies Research Project, National Museum of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2.
Site type: Bog body
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 600293m, N 778741m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.758284, -7.995556
A bog body came to light in Cloonshannagh, Co. Roscommon, in late May 2005 during small-scale mechancial peat-cutting operations in a private bog just off the N4 between Termonbarry and Strokestown. The body was uprooted from the peat and was spread out by the machine. The body was that of a female and was a bog skeleton with no soft tissue remaining. A bone retrieval operation was carried out at the site, effectively dipping into the water in the bog drain and extracting skeletal material. A small cutting at the edge of the drain, about 2m in length and 1m in width, was also opened to retrieve further bone. Three different types of textile associated with the body were also retrieved but were unfortunately in very fragmentary states. The body has been tentatively dated to the late medieval/post-medieval period, based on the textiles.
