It is not much to look at in terms of measurements, barely a metre and a third wide, but what it represents is a small act of determined engineering: someone, at some point, decided that the wetland here needed crossing, and set about making that possible with the materials to hand.

The structure is a togher, the Irish term for a bog road or trackway, typically constructed by laying timber across soft or waterlogged ground to create a passable surface. This example runs on a north-south orientation and was built in two layers. The base consists of hazel roundwood, with individual pieces reaching up to nine centimetres in diameter, giving the structure a flexible, bundled foundation. Over this was placed a split-oak stem, sixteen centimetres in diameter, which would have provided a firmer, more durable walking or working surface. The combination of hazel and oak is characteristic of the practical opportunism of early Irish wetland construction, using whatever timber was locally available and suited to the task. Bogs across the Irish midlands preserve dozens of such trackways, some dating back thousands of years, because the anaerobic, waterlogged conditions slow decay almost to a standstill.