2013:127 - Mountlucas Bog RD23-3-1, Ballynakill, Offaly

Monitoring of the construction of an access road, part of a wind farm development in Mountlucas Bog, Co. Offaly, revealed an area of dense archaeological activity, located near the southern edge of the bog. The subsequent excavations took part in two stages and involved eight different sites, situated close to each other at a similar level in the bog. The sites comprised five Class 2 toghers, one Class 3 togher and two peatland structures. The trackways were all on a north-south orientation and were mostly constructed of longitudinally laid roundwoods and brushwoods. Radiocarbon dates indicated that the sites were Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age in date.

The trackway at site RD23-3-1 was exposed for a total length of 15.7m, being truncated to the north by the road cutting and continuing beyond the limit of the site to the south. It was up to 4.43m wide and 0.7m deep, composed of roundwoods, brushwood, fine twigs, pegs and some plank fragments. Most elements were laid longitudinally on a north-south alignment but the site had a rather mixed appearance and there were variations, particularly to the south, where there were some transverse elements on the western side of the trackway and to the north, where two patches of brushwood lay alongside the north eastern edge. These patches were not integrated with the rest of the trackway and may have simply been deposited to the side of it. In addition, there was a narrow band of displaced, fragmented elements running transversely across the centre of the trackway. This disturbance proved to only affect the uppermost 0.14m of trackway and may have been the result of something having been dragged across it, probably from east to west

The wood was generally well-preserved, with some degradation to the surface elements, which were also broken along their length. The condition of the wood below the surface, as observed in the sections, appeared to be very good. The wood ranged in size from minute twigs through to roundwoods measuring up to 3.56m in length and 0.16m in diameter. The central part of the trackway was extremely dense, with hardly any peat between the tightly packed brushwood elements.

Following consultations with the Department of the Environment and Bord na Móna, it was decided to preserve the site in situ. The trackway was therefore not fully excavated and the work confined to exposing the surface structure and investigating it further by means of two sections and two small sondages. In addition, a full range of samples, for dating, wood and palaeoecological analysis, were taken before work ceased.

A piece of alder from the trackway was submitted for radiocarbon dating and indicated a date of 4777±32 BP (UBA-24164)

Dominic Delany & Associates, Unit 3, Howley Court, Main Street, Oranmore, Co. Galway