Road - class 3 togher, Derrymany, Co. Longford
Co. Longford |
Roads & Tracks
Beneath the boglands of Derrymany in County Longford, a road made of wood survives in the waterlogged ground, placed there by hands that understood both the landscape and the timber they were working with.
It is a togher, an ancient trackway laid across soft or wet terrain to make passage possible where the ground alone could not bear it. This particular example runs on a northeast to southwest orientation and measures 2.5 metres wide and roughly 26 centimetres deep, dimensions that suggest something built with a degree of care and intention rather than a quick seasonal fix.
The construction method is specific and telling. Large birch roundwood pieces, each up to about 16.5 centimetres in diameter, were laid lengthways along the trackway to form its structural core. Between these, hazel brushwood with an average diameter of around 3.5 centimetres was woven or packed in, providing both stability and a surface that could distribute weight across the boggy ground beneath. Bogs preserve organic material extraordinarily well by keeping it starved of oxygen, which is why wood that might otherwise have rotted centuries ago can still be examined in detail. In this case, there was clear evidence of woodworking on the timbers, meaning the builders were shaping and preparing their materials rather than simply laying down whatever came to hand. The combination of birch and hazel was not accidental either; both were common, fast-growing Irish woodland species that would have been readily available and well understood by anyone with experience of managing woodland for practical use.