County: Offaly Site name: Ballinagar/Knockballyboy/Clonad/Rathfeston/Ballyduff South, Clonad Bog
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 13E0229
Author: Jane Whitaker
Site type: Peatland
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 646491m, N 724120m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.265382, -7.303115
A re-assessment field walking survey was carried out in Clonad Bog in September 2013 on behalf of Bord na Móna. Clonad bog is situated south-south-west of Daingean town and is 411ha in size. It has been in industrial production since 1962. The drains are oriented north-south and it was in full production at the time of the 2013 re-assessment survey. Clonad Bog was archaeologically surveyed in 2001 by IAWU as part of the Archaeological Survey of Ireland Peatland Survey under licence number 01E0424? (IAWU, 2002). At that time a total of 41 sites were identified consisting of 4 primary toghers, 2 secondary toghers, 9 tertiary toghers, 19 worked wood in situ, 3 unworked wood in situ, a ‘complex’ and two recovered artefacts. Most of these sites concentrated in an area in the south-east of the main area of bog.
A total of seven sites were excavated in Clonad Bog in 2004 by ADS Ltd as part of the BnM Mitigation Project. Excavation concentrated on four toghers running north-east to south-west across the south-eastern part of the bog in close proximity to one another and a large Bronze Age transverse plank trackway (OF018-016) oriented from north-west to south-east and apparently terminating at a gravel knoll/bog island was excavated in five cuttings and traced as far as possible. The total length of this trackway was approximately 600m and its construction and the materials used were relatively uniform along its length with several layers of similar construction apparent in the cuttings.
Six sites were recorded in 2013 including the Bronze Age plank trackway OF-CND004a-s (OF018-106) which was still visible and recorded across 19 production fields. The remaining sites consisted of four platforms and a possible trackway. The previously recorded concentration of sites in the south-eastern extent of the bog was no longer extant with only a single site, a possible trackway, recorded in that part of the bog. A single platform was recorded south-west of the large plank trackway (OF018-016) while the remaining three sites were located in the north-western extent of the bog.
ADS Ltd, Unit 4 The Printhouse, 22-23 South Cumberland Street, Dublin 2
