It is only about forty metres long and no wider than a corridor, but the density of its construction, roundwood poles laid transversely side by side to form a firm surface, suggests it was built to be used regularly and reliably, not thrown together in a hurry. A togher, as these bog roads are known in Ireland, was essentially a timber causeway designed to carry people safely across waterlogged ground that would otherwise be impassable.

This particular togher runs on a north-west to south-east alignment, oriented towards Derrynaflan, a dryland island rising out of the bog to the south. Derrynaflan is no ordinary patch of dry ground; it is the site of an early medieval monastery, and is perhaps best known to the wider public as the place where a remarkable hoard of liturgical metalwork was discovered in 1980. The togher in Killeen bog would have served as a physical link between the surrounding landscape and that religious community, a practical piece of infrastructure built to make access possible across terrain that the bog would otherwise have closed off entirely. Its consistent construction along its full length, the poles densely packed and level enough to walk on, points to a degree of planning and labour that reflects the importance of maintaining that connection.