County: Offaly Site name: Mountlucas Bog RD23-3-8, Ballynakill
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 13E0140
Author: Sinclair Turrell
Site type: Road – Class 2 Togher
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 649818m, N 723646m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.260822, -7.253325
This trackway, which ran north-south for 18.5m, was up to 2.4m wide and 0.45m deep. It was composed of largely of longitudinal brushwoods, together with a few roundwoods and some patches of twigs. A single transverse roundwood was also noted, lying beneath the brushwood. The roundwoods, situated mainly towards the edges of the trackway, were up to 2.3m long and 0.1m in diameter.
The wood was moderately to poorly preserved, broken along its length and partly degraded. It was densely laid in places with a wavy appearance but in parts of the trackway the wood was sparse or completely missing. The trackway petered out at its northern extent, although it is possible that it had been truncated by the road cut at this point. To the south, the trackway also petered out, with just a few elements appearing to continue beyond the excavated limit of the site and the trackway may have been constructed to traverse a particularly wet part of the bog.
Radiocarbon dating of a piece of hazel from the trackway produced a date of 4612±33 BP (UBA-24161).
Dominic Delany & Associates, Unit 3, Howley Court, Main Street, Oranmore, Co. Galway
