The Friars Togher — Derryvilla

Not visible at ground level. Depicted on OS 6-inch map as a linear feature orientated on a NNW/SSE axis. Modern quarry located where site is marked on OS 6-inch map. Recent buria ground found on top of hill at N end of linear feature, possibility that this togher or trackway was a medieval road giving access to the burial ground (OF034-008001-). Described in 1981 as 'The togher is shown on the 6-inch map as running N-S, straddling the main road. The section to the N of the road was visited but the field has been bulldozed and there are no traces of a field or bank as on the S of the road. There are some intermittent slight humps, which may be fragments of the monument but there can be no certainty. To the South of the road the monument can be seen as a low wide bank, best preserved in the 10m closest to the road. It runs for some 18m, before being interrupted by a modern ditch. It then runs on a further 15m, sporadically eroded and denuded and cut into by trees, which have been recently cut down to their stumps. The bank averages 2m wide at its almost flat top and is 4.2m wide on average from base to base of slope. It averages a rise of 0.4-0.5m high from the surrounding field. It runs across peaty, but relatively good land for this area and directly to a building of a farmyard type as shown on 1st ed. map. (ASI file 1981). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Offaly' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 23 May 2011