What is recorded here

Clonad Bog keeps a hidden room where human hands stopped the swamp from taking them back. Around 1900 BC, people laid alder and brushwood across the water, building a small dry place for life or ritual. Peat closed over the work, forgetting the shape until drainage opened the floor and light returned. What was made is no longer certain, but the act remains clear: they refused to drown in their own world.

This site is located in the industrial peatlands of Clonad Bog. It was recorded in a drain face c. 0.14m below the field surface during the 2013 Reassessment Peatland Survey (Whitaker 2014). On excavation in 2014 (licence 14E0354) the site was exposed to be a possible platform. A single cutting, measuring 5x2m, was opened; the E extent of the cutting was truncated by a drain. The overlying peat was well-humified Sphagnum peat. The possible platform was composed of closely placed NW-SE orientated brushwood and roundwood elements, measuring a maximum of 1.4m in length. They were laid a maximum of two layers deep. The underlying peat was moderately humified. A fragment of alder was chosen for AMS dating and returned a result of cal. 1923-1752 BC (UBA 26630). Compiled by: Jane Whitaker/Femke Vleeshouwer Date of upload: 25 February 2020

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