Road - class 3 togher, Cloontamore, Co. Longford

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Roads & Tracks

Road – class 3 togher, Cloontamore, Co. Longford

In the boglands of Cloontamore, County Longford, there lies what remains of a togher, an ancient trackway built to carry people across the sodden, treacherous ground of an Irish wetland.

Toghers are among the quieter archaeological phenomena of the Irish midlands, lengths of timber, brushwood, or compacted material laid down across bog surfaces that would otherwise have been impassable. This particular example is classed as a class 3 togher, a designation that refers to its construction type within a broader taxonomy of these ancient bog roads, which range from simple bundles of brushwood to more elaborate plank and rail constructions.

The site was noted during a field survey carried out in 1988, with the observation credited to B. Raftery, a name well known in Irish wetland archaeology. The broader context of that work belongs to a period of intensive survey activity focused on Ireland's boglands, which had come to be recognised as extraordinary preservers of organic material, including the timber structures of ancient routeways that would have rotted away entirely in drier soils. Bogs essentially pickle wood, halting decay through their cold, acidic, oxygen-poor conditions, which is why toghers that might be thousands of years old can still yield identifiable timbers when a cutting machine or a careful excavator disturbs the peat.

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