Road - class 3 togher, Derrynagran, Co. Longford
Co. Longford |
Roads & Tracks
In the boglands of Derrynagran, County Longford, the remains of an ancient roadway survive in a form so modest it is easy to underestimate: a narrow track of brushwood, barely a metre and a quarter wide and only ten centimetres deep, laid carefully across wet ground to allow people to pass.
This is a togher, a type of wooden trackway built across boggy or marshy terrain, and examples like this one represent some of the oldest engineered routes in the Irish landscape.
The structure is classified as a class 3 togher, meaning it was built from relatively light materials rather than the heavy split timbers used in more substantial examples. It runs east to west and consists of longitudinal branches of ash and hazel, each averaging around three centimetres in diameter, laid three layers deep to create a firm walking surface over soft ground. What makes this particular togher quietly compelling is a single oak peg found within the body of the road, bearing visible toolmarks. That small detail is significant: it is direct physical evidence of the person who shaped it, a mark left by a cutting edge on a piece of oak, connecting the object to the hand that made it. The ash and hazel used in the trackway's construction were common choices for such work, both being flexible, fast-growing species well suited to weaving and stacking into a stable surface.