Derryoghil & Tin Tab Bog Trackways (Derryoghil–Derragh Bog, Co. Longford)
Derryoghil Cashel road · Tin Tab composite trackway · Derragh wood road
Neolithic to Early Bronze Age (2750–2280 BCE)·Irish Neolithic–Early Bronze (Beaker transition, 2500 BCE)·🇮🇪 Leinster, County Longford, Derryoghil–Derragh Bogs, Lough Gowna–Upper Shannon watershed, Ireland
About
About Derryoghil & Tin Tab Bog Trackways (Derryoghil–Derragh Bog, Co. Longford)
4 m wide, transverse oak on ash sleepers) sharing the same 700-m bog crossing between two esker dry islands at Derragh (Lough Gowna). 2 m deep: Neolithic brush heavily compressed beneath Bronze plank way, indicating 500-year reuse of the same esker-to-esker corridor — only Irish example of Neolithic→Bronze stacked reuse. Lower preserves faun dung layers proving cattle drove; upper has wheel-rut grooving.
Why it mattersOnly Irish stacked 500-year reuse of same bog gap — demonstrates continuity of drove corridors.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Dung layer species
Theories
- 01500-yr drove-way memory
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- Lower Tin Tab c.2750 BCE, Upper Derryoghil c.2280 BCE
- Period
- Neolithic to Early Bronze Age (2750–2280 BCE)
- Culture
- Irish Neolithic–Early Bronze (Beaker transition, 2500 BCE)
- Builders
- Longford lakeland Neolithic pastoralists and Early Bronze Beaker communities
- Purpose
- Esker-to-esker cattle drove across raised bog (faun dung proof)
- Abandoned
- c.2000 BCE (bog rise)
- Rediscovered
- 1998 Bord na Móna; IAWU Irish Agriculture & Wetlands Unit
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
-2750
Tin Tab brushwood laid (14C)
-2280
Derryoghil oak plank superstructure (14C+dendro)
On the ground
Structures & features
53.7500° N · 7.8500° W · 62 m · 2 mapped features
Upper Oak Plank Way (2280 BCE, 2.4 m)
trackway2.4-m transverse oak plank drove road with wheel ruts on upper level
53.7510° N · 7.8510° WLower Brushwood Base (2750 BCE, 1.8 m)
trackway1.8-m hazel–birch brushwood raft beneath upper, with cattle dung horizon
53.7490° N · 7.8490° W