County: Offaly Site name: Mountlucas Bog RD23-1, Ballynakill
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 12E0249
Author: Sinclair Turrell
Site type: Platform
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 650236m, N 724111m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.264960, -7.246982
Excavation took place between 13 and 22 August 2012 of a platform site, identified during monitoring of works associated with the construction of a wind farm at Mountlucas Bog, Co. Offaly. The site measured 3.9m x 2m and was 0.32m thick, composed of several, mostly parallel, layers of densely laid roundwoods and brushwoods, mainly of birch. Many of the larger elements had worked ends and these appeared to have been cut with a metal axe of slightly rounded profile, indicating a possible Bronze Age date for the site. Branch trimming was evident on some timbers and this seems to have taken place on site. A linear feature filled with woody peat, which ran along one site of the platform, appeared to be a palaeochannel.
Platforms may have been used for a variety of purposes where an activity required a relatively stable, dry footing. There was no indication here of what particular activity may have been carried out but, if the platform was contemporary with the adjacent palaeochannel, then its siting next to it was probably not coincidental and the activity may have been connected with the channel.
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