An old roadway discovered in a Co Tipperary bog this week may date as far back as the Bronze Age, archaeologists believe. A team of nine archaeologists spent yesterday taking samples from the roadway, which may have been buried for as long as 4,000 years at Sharragh bog, Rathcabbin, on the northern tip of the county.
The roadway was discovered earlier in the week by a machine operator who was back-filling drains in the bog, which is preserved by the Office of Public Works.
The nine-strong team from the Irish Archaeological Wetlands Unit was dispatched immediately to the site.
It worked for two days excavating before covering over the 20metre segment of the road last night.
While it is too early to determine the date of origin, based on the style of the construction it appears that it may be anything from 4,000 to 6,000 years old.
Samples taken from the roadway, which is made of split planks laid on round wood runners, are being sent to Queen's University Belfast next week for examination, though it may be up to two months before conclusive test results are known.
Ms Jane Whitaker, heading the archaeological team at the site, described the discovery as significant, likening it to two similar ones in Cos Longford and Galway in the past decade.
"In construction it is similar to the roadways discovered in Colrea bog (Co Longford) and Annacorrib (Galway), which date back to 148 BC and 1500 BC, respectively.
"It is certainly a very exciting discovery. In archaeological terms it is a significant one and certainly also substantial," she said.
The timbers are one metre or so below the surface level of the bog, but above a layer of gravel which is separated from them by another 0.5 metre moss layer.
This, archaeologists believe, indicates that an even earlier phase of roadway existed in the area.
The roadway also runs in the direction of a priest's bush, where Masses were celebrated during Penal times.
According to a neighbouring farmer, Mr Michael Hoctor, a theory locally is that the roadway was laid to enable farmers to walk cattle and goats through the bog wetlands centuries ago.
Some 2,000 sites have been excavated since the Irish Archaeological Wetlands Unit was set up in 1991, but according to Ms Whitaker the north Tipperary discovery is one of the more substantial.
"Some of what we have discovered in our excavations over the years date back to around the same time as this seems to be from, but there aren't too many as substantial.
"This would have been a heavily flooded area, so the roadway would have been quite significant to the people at that time.
"All archaeology is, of course, important, but this is a very wellconstructed piece. Our job here was to assess the nature of the find and to determine any possible threat.
"But thankfully the site won't be in any danger because the bog is going to be preserved," Ms Whittaker said.