Road - class 3 togher, Derryglogher, Co. Longford

Co. Longford |

Roads & Tracks

Road – class 3 togher, Derryglogher, Co. Longford

In the bogland of Derryglogher, County Longford, three pieces of round timber lie end to end in the dark, forming what was once a deliberate path across wet and yielding ground.

This is a togher, the Irish term for a timber trackway laid across boggy terrain to allow people or animals to pass safely, and what survives here is modest almost to the point of invisibility: just 65 centimetres wide and 10 centimetres deep, oriented north-north-east to south-south-west, it represents one of the more quietly remarkable categories of early Irish engineering.

What makes this particular example worth pausing over is the detail recorded on one of its three longitudinal roundwoods. It carries toolmarks, the physical traces of someone shaping or working the timber before it was laid down. That small fact collapses the distance between the present and a moment of labour in the past, a person with a blade, preparing a piece of wood to bear the weight of other people crossing uncertain ground. The classification as a class 3 togher places it within a typology based on construction method, with class 3 generally indicating a simple laid-wood structure rather than a more elaborate pegged or planked road. The Irish boglands have preserved hundreds of such trackways in various states, the anaerobic, acidic conditions of the peat acting as a natural archive for organic material that would otherwise have vanished centuries ago.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Road – class 3 togher, Derryglogher, Co. Longford. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement