This is a togher, a type of wooden trackway laid across soft or marshy ground to allow people and animals to pass safely. The Cloonbreany example runs east to west across the bog for eighty-five metres, reaching two metres in width and preserved to a depth of between twenty-five and forty centimetres.

The construction follows a method that was refined over centuries of bogland engineering. A base layer of longitudinal roundwood and brushwood was laid first to spread the load across unstable ground, and then transverse roundwood was placed on top to form the actual walking or travelling surface. This two-tier approach, substructure supporting superstructure, is what defines a class 2 togher. The builders chose their timber carefully. Alder and ash dominate the surviving wood, both species that would have been readily available in the wet woodland fringing Irish bogs. Alder in particular has long been valued for its durability in damp conditions, resisting decay in ways that many other timbers do not.