Road

The remains of a truncated brushwood trackway were discovered in an exposed section-face within Ballyoran Bog during monitoring along the route of the N8 Rathcormac-Fermoy Bypass in 2004. The remains of the trackway (2.6m NW-SE; 1.2m NE-SW) occurred c. 1.5m below the bog surface and lay directly above the underlying clay. It comprised the ends of brushwood rods and roundwoods that had been truncated by machinery. An overlying subrectangular platform, which comprised two brushwood layers, may have served as a rough walking or working surface for the construction of the potential trackway (Tierney et al. 2006, 10). One of the layers of the platform was radiocarbon dated to cal BC 8280-7965 (UB-6780), however, according to the excavator (ibid.), this date is problematic because it predates all known human activity in the area. Tierney (ibid.) proposes that old preserved wood may have been used in the construction of the trackway and that this may explain the early radiocarbon date returned. An excavated fulacht fia (CO035-141----) was located c. 390m to the N. (Tierney et al. 2007, 57) The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 5' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2009). Date of upload: 22 December 2009