County: Tipperary Site name: Longfordpass Bog, Kilmakill and Longfordpass North
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 10E0333
Author: Jane Whitaker, Archaeological Development Services Ltd, Unit 4, The Printhouse, 22–23 South Cumberland Street, Dublin 2.
Site type: Togher
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 622567m, N 661786m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.706728, -7.666055
This togher was located at the western edge of Longfordpass Bog and was visible, in the drain faces, in two adjacent drains. This site was traced for a maximum length of 15m during the 2006 Peatland Survey and was subsequently dendrochronologically dated to 1004 bc. It was orientated east-north-east/west-south-west and was composed of longitudinally laid planks, with gravel at the westernmost sighting. A single cutting was excavated in 2010 at sighting TI-LFP002a.
The cutting excavated measured 3m by 4m and was located on the field surface at the first drain along the western extent of Longfordpass Bog. The site was composed of an upper layer of gravel that was composed of decayed, mainly sandstone pieces ranging from 0.03m to 0.1m in size. There was also evidence for large quantities of Calluna roots and rushes contained in this layer. The stone layer measured 1.2m in width and an average of 0.04m in depth. Underneath the gravel layer were longitudinally laid planks which in turn were supported by short lengths of transverse planks. The plank layer appeared to be composed of three or four poorly preserved parallel planks creating a walking surface 2.48m to 2.76m in width. The poor preservation, however, made it difficult to distinguish if this was the case or whether it was a degraded single wide plank. Underlying the planks were fine deposits of gravel similar to that recorded over the planks. This layer was not consistently laid along the length of the trackway and may have been placed in wetter areas to provide additional support to the timbers and gravel above.
Please see final report:
Whitaker, J. 2021. Final Excavation Report for Longfordpass Bog (Licences: 10E0330, 10E0331, 10E0332, 10E0333), Irish Archaeological Consultancy Ltd., 2019. Unpublished report prepared by IAC Archaeology.
