2010:623 - Killeen Bog, Lurgoe, Tipperary

A single cutting measuring 15m in length by 7m in width was excavated over the site identified as a platform (TS-KLN004) during the Peatland Survey 2006. This site was described as being composed of densely laid transverse roundwood and heavy brushwood elements that were visible in the drain face 0.2m below the field surface. It was orientated north–south and subsequently returned a late Bronze Age/early Iron Age date of 820–420 bc. Excavation revealed that the site had been somewhat disturbed since the survey was carried out four years previously. The site was composed, for the most part, of tightly packed east–west-oriented roundwoods and brushwoods interspersed with and supported by north–south-oriented roundwood and brushwood elements. The cutting measured 15m x 7m and straddled the Bord na Móna drain and the platform was better preserved on the western side of the drain. The upper surface of the site was composed mainly of roundwood elements, 0.09–0.18m in diameter and 0.23–2.9m in length, with occasional brushwood, pegs and timbers. The brushwood measured 0.22–1.54m in length and 0.01–0.03m in diameter while the pegs measured 0.24–0.7m in diameter. The elements were, in the majority, oriented east–west with occasional north–south supporting roundwoods. As excavation revealed the site to be longer than its width, slot-trenches were excavated to investigate if the site was in fact a north–south-oriented trackway providing access to the dry land island to the north. The slot-trenches confirmed that the majority of the structure was exposed within the cutting and therefore was most likely an elongated platform.