Corlea Trackway (Togher), Co. Langford
18 m of excavated and conserved timber trackway from 148 BC
Bog
Modern boardwalk above the remaining 80m of buried trackway
Bog Yew Sculpture
Location: 3km from Kenagh Village and accessed from the Longford-Kenagh Road R397
(15km from Longford) or from the Mullingar-Lanesboro Road R392.
Description: Corlea Trackway Visitor Centre (Longford)
In 1984, at Corlea near Keenagh, Co. Longford, removal of peat by Bord na Móna's
production machinery revealed a great timber roadway which had lain buried in the bog
for centuries. Tree ring analysis carried out at Queen's University, Belfast revealed
the trees used were felled late in 148 B.C. or early in 147 B.C and identified the
roadway as the only known example in Ireland of an Early Iron Age road.
In 1985 the roadway at Corlea was excavated under the auspices of the National Monuments
Branch of the Office of Public Works.
While the Iron Age road at Corlea lay hidden
under the peat which had engulfed it, the ancient timbers were preserved in the bog's
watery anaerobic environment. But the discovery of the roadway exposed the waterlogged
timbers to the atmosphere where they would rapidly deteriorate without conservation
measures. The techniques required to preserve these timbers are highly specialised
and costly. Nevertheless such was the importance of the archaeological remains that the
Office of Public Works approached Bord na Móna with a view to preserving a 20m section
of the road, together with an adjoining 4 ha of intact raised bog in which a section of
the trackway would remain undisturbed in waterlogged conditions. Bord na Móna transferred
its interest in the site and carried out work to preserve the raised bog remnant. The
main feature in the conservation of the raised bog was the insertion of a plastic membrane
around its perimeter to prevent seepage of water and to maintain the moisture content of
the bog at around 95%.
Inside the building, an 18 metre stretch of
preserved road is on permanent display in a specially designed hall with humidifiers
to prevent the ancient wood from cracking in the heat.
There is a nice exhibit area,
the preserved trackway is impressive and a 17 minute audio-visual presentation
is informative. The center houses a tearoom and toilet facilities.
The picnic area is adjacent to the ample carpark. The center is open from 10 am to
6 pm during the season.
Comments: The Visitor's Center may be a bit off the beaten track (pun intended)
which is probably why it isn't crowded as are some of the more well-known tourist sites.
Because we had read about these trackways, we made a special effort to visit the day before
it closed for the season (April through September) and were rewarded with having the
entire facility to ourselves. We were treated to an extended and personal tour of the
exhibits, the preserved trackway and the boglands outside. Noel, our guide, was
extremely gracious and quite generous with his knowledge of not only the trackways, but
of the wonderful variety of autumn-blooming plants in the bog.
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