Road - togher, Derryfadda, Co. Tipperary

Co. Tipperary |

Roads & Tracks

Road – togher, Derryfadda, Co. Tipperary

Beneath the flat bogland of Derryfadda in County Tipperary, preserved in the cold, oxygen-poor conditions that make Irish bogs such remarkable archives, lies a wooden trackway that once allowed people to cross ground that would otherwise have swallowed them whole.

A togher, as these ancient bog roads are known in Ireland, is essentially a timber causeway laid across wet or marshy terrain, and the example found here is a particularly well-constructed one, built from layers of roundwood and brushwood pressed into service as both foundation and surface.

The trackway extends just over twenty-four metres in length and varies considerably in width, from roughly three metres at its narrowest to nearly eleven metres across at its widest point. That variation suggests either a deliberate broadening at certain sections or, perhaps, accumulated repairs and additions over time. Beneath the surface, a deep layer of roundwood and brushwood provided the structural base, with five irregularly placed deposits of roundwood sitting above it. What gives this site a particular detail worth noting is the recovery of a brushwood point made from yew during survey work carried out by the Irish Archaeological Wetland Unit at University College Dublin, as well as a wooden shaft uncovered during excavation. Yew was a significant timber in early Irish material culture, valued for its density and durability, and its deliberate use here hints at considered construction rather than casual improvisation. The findings were documented by Murray in 1999.

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