Road - class 3 togher, Derryoghil, Co. Longford
Co. Longford |
Roads & Tracks
In the boglands of Derryoghil in County Longford, a stretch of ancient roadway survives in a form that would be unrecognisable to anyone expecting cobblestones or gravel.
A togher is a trackway built from timber laid across wet or marshy ground, a practical solution to the problem of moving through Ireland's extensive boglands, and this particular example measures roughly twelve metres in length and just over a metre wide, modest dimensions that nonetheless represent a meaningful feat of organisation in whatever period it was laid down.
The trackway was recorded in two sections, designated 48A and 48B. The first section was built from tightly packed brushwood, with individual stems around 25 millimetres in diameter, supplemented by some roundwood. The second section was looser in construction, combining roundwood with brushwood ranging from 20 to 50 millimetres in diameter, along with twigs. The difference in technique between the two sections is notable: rather than a single continuous road, it is possible that 48A and 48B were built separately, without any direct connection between them. Whether this reflects different phases of construction, different builders, or simply two independent attempts to solve the same local problem of soft ground, the record does not confirm.
