They are not a monument, not officially, and that is precisely what makes them interesting. Most archaeological sites are defined by what they are; this one is quietly defined by what it cannot quite be proven to be.

The find consists of two roundwoods, one of hazel and one of oak, each between eight and nine centimetres in diameter, oriented east to west in the peat. Roundwoods are essentially unworked or minimally worked branches or stems, the kind of timber used in everything from trackways to wattle fencing to simple structural supports. What gives the Derrynagran pieces a degree of intrigue is that the oak roundwood carries toolmarks at one end, suggesting it was shaped or trimmed by a person rather than broken by wind or water. But two pieces of wood, however suggestive, do not constitute enough evidence to classify the site as the remains of an archaeological monument. The peatlands of the Irish midlands have preserved a remarkable range of ancient wooden structures, from elaborate bog roads to hurdles and platforms, and it is against that broader context that these two timbers feel like a fragment of something larger that simply has not survived, or has not yet been found.