Ancient trackway found within ‘drowned forest’ in Connemara

Oak structure confirms human habitation before Galway Bay was formed 

Remains of an oak trackway, estimated to be between 3,500 and 4,500 years old, on the shore near Furbo, Co Galway. Photograph: Joe O’Shaughnessy

Fragments of an oak trackway suggesting human habitation have been found within the 7,500-year-old “drowned forest” on the north Galway shoreline.

The track could be between 3,500 and 4,500 years old, and may have been built when the sea level was rising and was gradually enveloping the forest that pre-dated Galway Bay.

NUI Galway (NUIG) geologist Prof Mike Williams, who has researched the “drowned forest”, comprising a layer of peat and tree stumps uncovered by the winter storms, examined the trackway or “togher” this week.

He was alerted to it by a Spiddal resident, Alan Keogh, who discovered it when walking on the south-east Connemara shore.

Mr Keogh said that he had heard about the drowned forest, recently reported in this newspaper, and recognised the significance of what appeared to be a “symmetrical structure” below a line of peat, about 1.5m by 1m.

“Together with the Bearna canoe, this is the first evidence of human habitation within these forests and lagoons in this area,” said Prof Williams.

“It could have been built during the late Neolithic or early Bronze age era, and may have been ceremonial or may have been built across wetland which was decaying forest, forming into bog.”

This would make it older than the Corlea “togher”, the Iron Age track across the boglands of Longford, close to the River Shannon.

The Corlea oak road, which was excavated by Prof Barry Raftery of University College Dublin, is the largest of its kind to have been uncovered in Europe.

Prof Williams is awaiting further archaeological examination of the section, which has a north-west orientation and is on a storm beach near Furbo, looking south to the Burren and Black Head.

The Bearna canoe was found on the shore near Bearna by Brian and Rónán Ó Carra in December 2002, and is preserved in the Galway Atlantaquaria in Salthill.

The canoe was found to be 4,740 years old when radiocarbon-dated and Mr Ó Carra believes the trackway may be of a similar age.

“The canoe was freshwater, and these people used them for fishing and as a form of transport – like our stand-up paddle-boards,” he said.

Mr Ó Carra recently found the skull of a red deer in the same area and this is being examined by the National Museum of Ireland.

The New-Year hurricane-force winds and sea swell stripped away layers of sand and stone on the shoreline. This revealed the peat and stump remains of the lagoon and a woodland landscape that had been populated by bears, people and wolves.

The stumps visible around Spiddal are in their original growth position, which would suggest they died quite quickly, Prof Williams says.

Ireland experienced a series of sea-level rises up to 5,000 years ago.

Prof Williams says the fragile habitats may be covered again within months, as the Atlantic replenishes the shore with stone and sand. irishtimes.com/


Actualizacion 21-08-14: Ancient oak structure from Connemara coast excavated and taken into State care
Archaeologists believe trackway may be preserved fulacht fiadh or ancient cooking place

The north Connemara coastline could be one of this island’s richest “time capsules” of life before sea levels rose, according to State archaeologists who have removed a 3,700-year-old structure from the shore in Co Galway. 

A team from the Underwater Archaeology Unit has excavated the entire oak structure, resembling an ancient trackway, which was exposed on the coastline at Lippa near Spiddal by last winter’s storms.

The “trackway”, discovered earlier this spring, may in fact be a very well-preserved and highly significant example of a fulacht fiadh, or ancient cooking place, constructed at a time when forests and lagoons extended out into what is now Galway Bay...

Related (2012): Letter From Ireland: Mystery of the Fulacht Fiadh

(Courtesy Emer Dennehy)