The Corlea Trackway is an Iron Age trackway (in Irish “togher”) that seems to cross a bog in County Longford near the village of Kenagh. Also known locally as the “Danes' Road”, it has no connection to Danish Vikings and ... no real connection to a discernible road network. It remains mysterious enough to encourage speculation ... despite the very good visitor centre.
Corlea Trackway Visitor Centre
Keenagh
County Longford
Website: Heritage Ireland - Corlea Trackway Visitor Centre
Where to Find the Corlea Trackway
Here is the first mystery ... as the location is quite hidden away and signposting can be erratic at times. It is about three kilometres west of Keenagh Village and accessed easiest from the Longford-Keenagh road (R397) or the Lanesboro-Ballymahon road (R392). There are signposts, but they are not always obvious. From Keenagh Village ask for directions to the harbour (on the Royal Canal), cross the canal on a humpback bridge and carry on for a few hundred metres, the Corlea Trackway Centre is on your left then.
The History and Archaeology of the Corlea Trackway
The Corlea Trackway is found in an area where Bord na Móna (the Irish Peat Board) is engaged in mechanised peat harvesting on a grand scale ... a brownish wasteland, flat and extremely uninviting. In the Iron Age, however, it was still covered by a colourful patchwork of bogs, areas of quicksand and ponds. This all was surrounded woods, mainly birch, willow, hazel and alder in low-lying areas, with oak and ash on higher ground. Basically a virtually impassible landscape with extremely dangerous areas.
During the peat harvesting, man-made ancient transport routes were uncovered - “toghers”, “bog roads” or trackways laid across this treacherous ground to provide a save passage. Or so it was assumed. Constructed during the Iron Age, as carbon dating established. An archaeological project led by Professor Barry Raftery (UCD) was allowed to establish the facts on the trackways before continuing peat harvesting destroyed all traces.
While working on the Corlea bog, archaeologists discovered no less than 108 “toghers”. Another 76 were identified on (or in) the Derryoghil bog just to the north. Most were made from simple woven hurdles, easily built and allowing people on foot to cross the bog.
Four, however, including what we now know as the Corlea Trackway, were so-called “corduroy roads”. These were painstakingly constructed from split planks laid on raised rails, a sturdy “bridge” suitable for wheeled traffic. The Corlea Trackway consists of oak planks of between roughly three and three and a half metres length, being around 15 centimetres thick and of varying width and felled around 148 BC.
To construct the trackway, which is around one kilometre long, the wood of at least 300 large oak trees was used. This would amount to a thousand wagons loaded with oak. Around the same amount of birch wood was used for the rails beneath. As the construction of the Corlea Trackway was accomplished in a year's time ... it must have been a very busy construction site indeed, with a manpower that would have dwarfed any “normal” project.
The Purpose of the Corlea Trackway
The Corlea Trackway ... seems to have no useful purpose that justifies the immense undertaking. The small, hurdle-made “toghers” seem to allow access to the bog, maybe for hunting, foraging or gathering firewood.
The “corduroy roads” were much too big for such a mundane task and did not seem to lead anywhere. Though connecting an island in the bog to dry land, there is no reason for such a massive structure being built with an effort to rival ritual construction ... and here the solution may lie: Structures like the Corlea Trackway may have been constructed to get into the bog for ritual purposes, usable for only a few years before being covered by the bog within a decade.
Indeed, Celtic mythology speaks of Herculean tasks like planting forests and building roads across bogs – Midir is asked to accomplish these in the tale of “The Wooing of Étaín”.
The Corlea Trackway Visitor Centre
When the Corlea Trackway was discovered, peat harvesting ground to a halt – and in a compromise between preservation and commerce Bord na Mona and the Office of Public Works have established the visitor centre with a visible portion of the trackway and stabilised part the surrounding bog to ensure that it remains wet, thus preserving the still buried parts of the road.
In the visitor centre an eighteen-metre section of trackway is open to view in a specially designed hall. This provides an artificial climate to preserve the wooden – and a superb view of the structure.
Exhibitions also explore the different roadways that were laid across bogs in pre-historic times as well as the general history of boglands ... though to see bog bodies one would have to visit the National Museum in Dublin.
An audiovisual presentation “Crossing the Centuries” explores the work done by Professor Raftery and his team and gives some interesting archaeological background. In the surrounding bog walkways have been laid and you can explore the landscape safely. It is, however, not advisable to go exploring outside the marked areas surrounding the Corlea Trackway Visitor Centre (unless you plan to become a subject of interest to archaeologists in a few thousand years).
One intriguing aspect of the visitor centre is not obvious ... seen from above it is very reminiscent of a Celtic cross.
An Alternative Way Through the Bog – the Royal Canal
While visiting the Corlea Trackway Centre, make a point of visiting the Royal Canal as well. The harbour near Keenagh is a fine example of a staging post on this once important inland waterway. Restored and reopened in 2010 it is now used by pleasure boaters and as a local amenity area. The paths running along the canal provide some relaxing walks as well - though not as varied as a walk along the Royal Canal in Dublin.
