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Structure

Structure, peatland

What is recorded here

Kinnegad Bog hides a Class 1 togher beneath layers of laminated peat, preserving oak planks and a massive transverse timber since 1540 BC. The structure emerged only when industrial draining cut through the ancient wetland, revealing brushwood and split wood that human hands arranged millennia ago. What appears as minor peatland debris is actually a forgotten engineering feat, suspended in time beneath County Meath's surface.
This site is located in the industrial peatlands of Kinnegad Bog. It was first recorded in the 2013 Peatland Survey as a peatland structure exposed in the drain face and orientated N-S. The monument was also visible in the opposing drain face, where a single damaged roundwood was seen (Bermingham 2014). Prior to excavation in 2015, some brushwood material was located to the S of the roundwood (ME-KRS021), and the cutting was extended to include this brushwood and investigate its association with the site. It should also be noted that the easting and northing co-ordinates for this site are reversed in the report - the ITM might not represent the locations of any of the sites. Excavation in 2015 (licence 15E0166) revealed that the site is part of a previously unrecorded sighting of Road – Class 1 togher, ME-KRS001, E of the last sighting ME-KRS0001g. The site was overlain by poorly decomposed, laminated Sphagnum peat and underlain by poorly humified Sphagnum pool peat. The recorded birch element (L1.5m, Diam. 0.06m) lay immediately along the northern extent of the brushwood associated with ME-KRS0001. The other elements consisted of longitudinal split oak planks supported by a transverse timber (L2m, Diam. 0.52m), with a supporting bed of irregularly-laid brushwood. Two sightings at the E extent of this site were excavated in 2007 (licence 07E0496 - see Rohan and Corcoran 2009), and subsequently dated to 1540 ± 9 BC. Compiled by: Jane Whitaker/Femke Vleeshouwer Date of upload: 27/02/2020

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What survives
Recorded monument

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