County: Roscommon Site name: CLS131, Cloonshannagh, Cloonshannagh Bog
Sites and Monuments Record No.: n/a Licence number: 14E0269
Author: Tim Coughlan, IAC Ltd
Site type: Class 3 Togher Road
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 602949m, N 780964m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.778249, -7.955258
Cloonshannagh Bog is located 3km northwest of Termonbarry and 2.5km west of Lough Forbes. The bog is part of the Bord na Móna Mountdillon Group and has a total area of 331 hectares. A survey in 2008 by ADS identified a total of 88 sites in licence 08E0645. Upon re-assessment in 2013 by ADS 89 sites were recorded under licence number 13E0221. Of the 89 sightings, 60 were platform sightings, 18 sightings were of archaeological wood and 11 were trackway sightings, all of varying lengths and widths. Of these 35 sites were listed for excavation as part of the current contract.
A cutting measuring 3.5m x 3.5m was opened around the recorded sighting of CLS131. The peat above the site and the peat within the structural elements was similar in its nature and content. It consisted of a dark orange-brown sphagnum type peat with inclusions of eriophorum, bog bean and calluna. The peat was moderately to well humified (H3).
The site consisted of a sub-rectangular platform consisting of mainly brushwood elements as well as some small roundwoods. The smaller elements were laid with a north-south orientation (potentially transverse) with the brushwoods laid over them in an east-west (longitudinal) manner. The elements were moderately to well preserved with bark present on many and approximately 12 worked ends were recorded. The lower brushwood elements were quite densely packed with the overlying roundwoods more sparsely laid. The size range of the elements was 0.10–2.70m in length and 0.01–0.09m in diameter. A number of smaller brushwood elements continued beyond the eastern site limit, although the larger roundwoods had clearly terminated. It is unclear therefore if the site continued across the field to the east to the recorded sighting of CLS129b, although it seems likely that they may now represent 2 separate structures.
A date of AD 676–877 was returned from a piece of 16 year old alder stake.
It is interpreted that site CLS131 represents a platform type structure. It is clear from the wider area surrounding the site that it forms part of an early medieval landscape consisting of small platforms across the bog surface - Site CLS128a-b, CLS129 and C131b.
IAC Ltd, Unit G1, Network Enterprise Park, Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow
