County: Kildare Site name: GILLTOWN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 07E0632
Author: Eoin Corcoran, Archaeological Development Services Ltd.
Site type: Road - road/rackway
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 679847m, N 731958m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.331847, -6.801229
The excavation of this site revealed the remains of a substantial wooden trackway. The original construction appears to have been of longitudinal roundwoods and planks with a substructure of transverse roundwoods, planks, some underlying brushwood and brushwood packing, and a thin layer of gravel in places below the wood elements. Pegs delineated the edges of the trackway. The structure originally would have formed a walking surface c. 2m wide.
This site was dated to between 1490 and 1200 BC after the 2005 Peatland Survey conducted by ADS on behalf of Bord na Móna (BnM) (Whitaker 2005). This trackway is orientated from north-east to south-west across a narrow neck of bog in the south-west corner of the BnM bog. It appears to run between the base of a hill to the south-west and a hill to the north-east. The hill at the north-east has an enclosure site on it, KD009–010. It is possible that there may be a relationship between the trackway and the enclosure.
Reference
Whitaker, J. 2005 Peatland survey 2005: Allen, Kilberry and Coolnamóna Bogs, Counties Kildare, Laois, Meath, Offaly and Westmeath. Unpublished report. Archaeological Development Services Ltd, Dublin.
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