Road - class 3 togher, Derrindiff, Co. Longford

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Roads & Tracks

Road – class 3 togher, Derrindiff, Co. Longford

In the bogland of Derrindiff in County Longford, beneath the peat, lies the remnant of a journey someone made perhaps a thousand or more years ago.

It is a togher, an ancient trackway built across wet or waterlogged ground, and this particular example is modest in scale but precise in its construction: one metre wide, roughly ten centimetres deep, and running east to west through terrain that would otherwise have been impassable.

The structure follows a method of building that was common across early medieval Ireland, when bogs were not empty wildernesses but active landscapes crossed regularly by people, livestock, and goods. This togher belongs to what is classified as a class 3 type, meaning it was laid predominantly with longitudinal roundwood, that is, small trimmed branches or poles placed lengthwise along the direction of travel rather than across it. The outer edges were reinforced with brushwood, thinner material with an average diameter of around four centimetres, which helped to define and stabilise the sides of the track. The timbers identified include ash and hazel, both of which were widely used in early Irish construction and craftsmanship, hazel in particular being a quick-growing, flexible wood well suited to woven or layered structures. The central poles averaged about seven centimetres in diameter, suggesting careful selection of material rather than a hasty improvisation over a patch of wet ground.

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