Road - class 3 togher, Derrynagran, Co. Longford

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Roads & Tracks

Road – class 3 togher, Derrynagran, Co. Longford

Preserved in the bogland of Derrynagran in County Longford is a road that was already ancient when the Normans arrived in Ireland.

It is a togher, the Irish term for a trackway built across wet or marshy ground, and this one is unusually complete: fifteen metres long, nearly three metres wide, and constructed from carefully laid birch and yew brushwood, with heavier transverse roundwood laid across it at intervals to provide stability underfoot.

What makes this particular togher quietly remarkable is the evidence left on the wood itself. The toolmarks found on the timber are well-preserved, meaning that the cuts and strikes made by whoever shaped and laid this material survive in legible form after however many centuries the bog has held them. The construction follows a logical logic: slender longitudinal brushwood, averaging around two and a half centimetres in diameter, runs the length of the trackway in a northeast to southwest orientation, with the occasional sturdier roundwood piece, seven to eight centimetres across, laid transversely to bind and support the surface. Yew in particular is notable as a building material because of its natural durability and resistance to decay, which may help explain why the structure has survived in such condition. The bog itself deserves some credit too: the acidic, anaerobic environment of a raised or cutaway bog suppresses the bacteria and fungi that would normally break wood down, effectively pickling organic material for millennia.

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