County: Offaly Site name: Curraghmore/Cloniff/Raghra/Cloniffeen, Curraghmore Bog
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 13E0226
Author: Jane Whitaker
Site type: Peatland
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 598389m, N 725602m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.280734, -8.024154
A re-assessment field walking survey was carried out in Curraghmore Bog in August 2013 on behalf of Bord na Mona. Curraghmore Bog is located 1.5km north-east of Shannonbridge, Co Offaly and is part of the Blackwater Group of Bogs. It measures c. 250ha in size and has been in production since 1992. In recent years however a large portion of the central part of this bog has been out of production and has become considerably overgrown with shrubs and large birch trees. A small area to the north-east, immediately south of the rail line that separates Curraghmore from the main body of Blackwater Bog, remains in production as does the southernmost extent of the bog. A total of 46 sites were recorded by the IAWU during the course of the 1992 Peatland Survey in what they described as an ‘archaeological complex’ in Curraghmore and Cloniff townlands and are listed by the Archaeological Survey of Ireland as OF013-012001-030, OF013-022, OF013-24 to 33.
Of these 42 sites, 9 were subsequently selected for excavation as part of the 2001 BnM Mitigation Project. The excavations carried out by ADS Ltd included two linear trackways (01E0593 and 01E0594?), a row of posts (01E0595?) and the remains of five wooden platforms (01E0618?).
No sites were recorded during the course of the 2013 re-assessment field survey. Some of the previously recorded sites may remain extant in the overgrown area but this was not possible to determine owing to the lack of visible field or drain surfaces.
ADS ltd, Unit 4 The Printhouse, 22-23 South Cumberland Street, Dublin 2
