Road - road/trackway, Bohagh, Co. Roscommon

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Roads & Tracks

Road – road/trackway, Bohagh, Co. Roscommon

On the southern slope of Mewlaghadooey Hill in County Roscommon, a pair of parallel earthworks trace what appears to be an ancient road or trackway approaching one of the hill's most prominent prehistoric features.

Roughly 120 metres long and spanning a combined width of around 28 metres, the two features consist of a low earthen bank to the east and a shallow scarp to the west, both aligned roughly north-northwest to south-southeast. At their most intact, neither rises more than 0.6 metres above the surrounding ground, making them easy to overlook unless you are specifically looking for the subtle geometry they describe across the hillside.

What gives the trackway its archaeological weight is its relationship to the monuments around it. It runs towards the perimeter of a hillfort, a type of enclosed settlement or ceremonial site typically defined by one or more banks and ditches encircling a hilltop, and it passes just to the west of a ring-barrow, a low circular mound generally associated with burial. The alignment suggests the road was deliberately oriented towards the hillfort entrance, implying it was not simply a field path but something more deliberate, perhaps a formal approach route used when the hillfort was active. The precise date of the trackway is unclear, but its physical proximity to both the hillfort and the barrow points to prehistoric origins. The earthworks have not survived intact. Old quarry pits have damaged significant portions, and a field bank running northeast to southwest, which also marks the townland boundary with Bohagh, cuts across and truncates the features to the east.

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Pete F
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