Road - class 3 togher, Derrymany, Co. Longford
Co. Longford |
Roads & Tracks
Beneath the bogland of Derrymany in County Longford, a narrow road of bundled birch branches lies buried, partially broken by machinery, quietly preserving evidence of a journey someone made across wet ground centuries ago.
It is a togher, a type of ancient trackway built through marsh or bog by laying timber, brushwood, or planks across the soft ground to create a passable surface. This example is a class 3 togher, meaning it was constructed from brushwood rather than the more substantial split planks or hewn timbers found in higher-class examples. What makes it particularly striking is the detail of what was found: the birch branches, each between roughly two and a half and four centimetres in diameter, bear toolmarks, suggesting they were deliberately cut and prepared rather than simply gathered and thrown down.
The trackway runs east to west and measures at least a metre wide, with a depth of at least ten centimetres where it survives. The exclusive use of birch brushwood is notable. Birch was commonly available in the Irish landscape and was widely used in early construction and craft, but a togher built entirely from a single species suggests either a purposeful choice or the practical reality of what was growing nearby. The toolmarks preserved on the branches are a direct trace of whoever built this, the marks of a blade or chopping tool, frozen in the anaerobic conditions of the bog that have kept organic material intact for what may be a very long time. Unfortunately, the site has suffered machine damage, which has disturbed some of the structure and likely destroyed portions of it entirely.