County: Meath Site name: Kinnegad Bog, Knockersally
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 07E0496
Author: Nicola Rohan, Archaeological Development Services Ltd, 110 Amiens Street, Dublin 1.
Site type: Plank trackway and archaeological wood
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 659317m, N 742567m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.429874, -7.107419
The plank trackway was one of ten sites excavated in Kinnegad Bog as part of the 2007 Bord na Móna archaeological mitigation programme. The trackway was located in the south-east corner of the bog and was orientated east–west for 120m from the dry land on the south-west side of the bog towards a dry-land island within the southern side of the bog. It is probably a continuation of plank trackway (see No. 1351 below, 07E0497), located on the eastern side of the bog, which appeared to be orientated from the same dry-land island to the eastern side of the bog. The site was sampled and dated after survey to 1750–1430 bc.
Two cuttings were excavated at the centre and the eastern end of the trackway. It was composed of longitudinally laid planks supported at either end by transverse planks. The longitudinals were also stabilised by pegs located intermittently along the sides of the planks or within mortise-holes found at the ends of the planks. The trackway measured between 0.3m and 2.7m in width and 0.11–0.5m in depth.
Cutting 1 was initially intended to measure 3m by 5m but was extended to measure 4m in width at the western side of the cutting. It was extended to establish the relationship between a possible trackway (ME-KND003a) and the plank trackway. During excavation it became apparent that the possible trackway was a deposit of archaeological wood that ran under the plank trackway. It was composed of regularly laid longitudinal brushwoods underlain by a large roundwood transverse that protruded from the bog at a 45° angle. This site measured 1.3m in length and 0.8m in width and clearly pre-dated the plank trackway.
