2007:1558 - Annaholty/Garraun, Tipperary

This monitoring was undertaken during construction of the N7 Nenagh to Limerick road project. Monitoring began in April 2007 and is currently ongoing. The monitoring was carried out only in three areas of bog that had not been investigated during either Phase I testing, Phase II resolution or Phase III additional testing in 2006 and 2007. These are Drominboy Bog, Co. Limerick (see No. 1087 above), and Annaholty and Cappadine Bogs, Co. Tipperary. The N7 traverses a gently undulating landscape of lowland pasture broken only by a large area of peat basin straddling the border between counties Limerick and Tipperary (Annaholty Bog). The region is overlooked by the Silvermines Mountains to the east and the Arra Mountains to the north and west.
The techniques of road construction within the bogs varied, with peat being mechanically removed and replaced with stone where possible and piling being carried out in the deepest parts of the bog. The ‘dig and replace’ operations were monitored fully; however, safety concerns meant that the monitoring archaeologist often had to remain a considerable distance from the open peat face.
Annaholty Bog
This was the largest of the areas to be monitored, covering 2.2km of the road route. Several small roads cross the bog, giving access to numerous peat cuttings. Works began in April 2007 and are still ongoing (February 2008). Whilst the deep central part of the bog is to be piled, large areas of peat, up to 7m thick, have been mechanically excavated and removed to an adjacent dumping area.
The upper layers of the peat were often grassy and a large number of ancient tree trunks and root systems were removed from the lower layers in places. Parts of the bog were very wet and prone to collapse, probably because mechanical turf cutting had taken place in the upper layers.
One site, a wooden trackway, was discovered during the monitoring and was excavated under E3530 (see No. 1568 below).
A number of artefacts were retrieved from the bog 380m to the north of the trackway (at NGR 168600 163850). These were c. 50 pieces of worked wood, mostly stakes, and a leather shoe. Unfortunately the area in which the items were found was extremely dangerous and subject to collapse so hand excavation was not possible and the artefacts were recovered from the mechanically excavated spoil, which was spread thinly to facilitate their retrieval. It is likely, however, that the timbers represent a trackway or platform of some sort that had collapsed when the surrounding peat was excavated away.
The shoe was found in peat from the same area as the timbers and was probably originally located nearby. This beautiful item has been examined by John Nicholls and identified as a left-foot shoe with a tanned cowhide sole and a deerskin upper. The shoe has a one-piece wraparound upper and the lacing thong is still in place. The type was in use from the 9th to late 12th centuries but decorative and structural details suggest an early 12th-century date is most likely. These finds were all from Annaholty townland.
Cappadine Bog
This small, lightly wooded marsh occupies a basin into which the surrounding area drains. As a result the bog, although only 2m deep, is heavily waterlogged. Occasional tree trunks were removed from the base of the peat but no archaeological material was observed.
To ascertain more data about the bogs and their relationships to archaeological sites in the region, a programme of palaeoenvironmental coring will take place in Annaholty and Cappadine in 2008–9.