Stepping stones, Derreighter, Co. Galway

They were not placed there to be found; they were placed there to be walked on, and then the bog simply kept them. Turf cutting at Derreighter in County Galway brought them into view, aligned along a north-east to south-west axis, the kind of deliberate orientation that suggests intention rather than accident.

Bogs have long swallowed the infrastructure of earlier lives. Before roads, before drainage schemes, the raised bogs of the west of Ireland were genuine obstacles, wet and unstable ground that nonetheless had to be crossed for seasonal grazing, trade, or simply to reach the next townland. Toghers, as these bog pathways are known in the Irish tradition, were typically constructed from split timber or brushwood laid across the surface, but stone causeways also exist, and the Derreighting stones appear to represent exactly this kind of practical solution. The depth at which they were found, around two metres below the current bog surface, indicates considerable age, though without excavation and dating analysis the precise period remains open. What the spacing of the stones does suggest is a path designed for foot traffic, each stone set within a stride of the next.

The site is not accessible in any conventional sense. The stones were observed during turf cutting and their precise current condition is unknown. What makes them worth knowing about is less their visitability than the image they produce: a forgotten crossing, laid stone by stone across ground that was already treacherous, now preserved by the very thing it was built to negotiate.