County: Longford Site name: Edera Bog, Edera/Gorteenclareen/ Derrynabuntale/Derrymacar/Derrycolumb/Ardoghil
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 07E0906
Author: Jane Whitaker, ADS Ltd, Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Dublin 3.
Site type: Survey
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 609676m, N 757646m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.568630, -7.853910
This bog was surveyed as part of the 2007 Peatland Survey which concentrated in Bord na Móna’s Cuil na Gun and Mountdillon groups. Edera Bog is the southernmost of the Mountdillon bogs and is located 5km west of Ballymahon, Co. Longford. The bog is 467ha in size and is divided into two parts, the main bog (Edera South) being separated from the smaller Edera North by the Bilberry River. The northern bog was in full production and the archaeology concentrated in the southern part with five trackways running more or less parallel and joining the same two parcels of land.
EDR001 was a gravel and brushwood trackway running east-north-east/west-south-west, recorded at 43 sightings (EDR001A–AQ). This was very variable, some sightings being broad with densely packed stone, marl and gravel, others being little more than a scatter of gravel within the peat. Brushwood was present in some, but not all, sightings. This trackway was generally found low down in the drain face.
EDR002 ran east-north-east/west-south-west for 25 sightings (EDR002A–Y). It was a plank trackway, with planks, roundwoods and brushwoods all in evidence.
EDR003 was a roundwood and brushwood trackway with parallel roundwood longitudinals and roundwood transverses. At sighting EDR003Q this track was crossed by EDR004/6, close to or on the bog surface.
Trackway EDR 004/006 appears similar to EDR003, with parallel roundwood longitudinals over roundwood transverses, and is also close to, or on, the bog surface.
EDR005 consisted of two sightings of archaeological wood in adjacent fields.
