County Westmeath

A farmer in Co Westmeath has said he thought 4,000-year-old Early Bronze Age axeheads found in his field were old horse ploughs, or scrap.

Thomas Dunne said the discovery was made after a piece of machinery fell off during silage cutting on his field in Coralstown.

The National Museum of Ireland issued an appeal earlier this month, after the axeheads were sent anonymously to the museum at the end of June.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Philip Boucher Hayes, Mr Dunne said: “We were cutting silage in a field when I felt a piece of steel come off the mower.

“We were afraid it would go into something else, so we got a man with metal detector to go and look for it.

“He found these under a row of beech trees. “We thought they were just bits of old horse ploughs or scrap. We could have thrown them back into the ditch the very same!”

More: rte.ie/news/regional/2024/0725/1461785-axe-heads/

The National Museum of Ireland has issued an appeal after 4,000-year-old Early Bronze Age axeheads were sent anonymously to the museum at the end of June.

The sender had fashioned packaging from a cardboard box of Flahavans Flapjacks with foam inserts inside cut to the exact size of the axeheads, each one smaller than the palm of a person’s hand.

They were accompanied by a letter stating they were discovered in the Westmeath area using a metal detector.

The museum has dated the axeheads to around 2150-2000 BC.

The sender said they wished for the axeheads to be conserved by the Museum but did not provide any contact details or further specifics.

The museum said the axeheads were “thoughtfully packed in foam cut-outs and cardboard, ensuring their safe arrival.”

More: rte.ie/news/2024/0713/1459683-national-museum-axeheads/

From the National Museum:
museum.ie/en-IE/News/Appeal-for-information-about-Bronze-Age-Axeheads-F

Illegal metal detectors have caused irreparable damage to a prehistoric road in the Midlands with Ireland’s leading heritage charity calling on the Government to intervene to save the road.

An Taisce: The National Trust for Ireland has written to the Heritage Minister Heather Humphreys to request that the oakwood-built roadway, located on Mayne Bog in Coole, Co. Westmeath, be protected fully by the laws of the State.

Its Antiquities and Monuments committee has criticised the Minister for “standing idly by” and wants a licensed metal detector survey carried out along the route.

Dr Mark Clinton of An Taisce said that the area is of international importance and should be placed on the Record of Monuments and Places (RMP) list. Much of the 647-metre, 3,000-year-old wooden track has been dug up by workmen cutting peat.

More: independent.ie/irish-news/illegal-metal-detectors-damage-3000yearold-wooden-road-35780708.html

‘Scandal’ that oak road on Mayne Bog, dating to 1200-820 BC, not surveyed or preserved

The Midland bogs have always been places of mystery – vistas of burnt umber that every so often unearth prehistoric time capsules: vats of bog butter, golden hoards, the mummified remains of sacrificial corpses.

In Longford, the Iron Age road unearthed at Corlea Bog has become the county’s prime tourism attraction, with massive oak planks wide enough for two chariots to pass side by side. In 2005, the discovery of a grander and far longer oak road at Mayne Bog in Coole, Co Westmeath, was a cause of great excitement. The National Monuments Service established that it was no mere trackway, measuring up to 6m in width, and dating to 1200-820 BC – a 1,000 years older than Corlea.

Westland Horticulture, extracting peat from the site at the time, were expected to cease work immediately but the National Monuments Service did not issue a preservation order, nor record it in the Register of Historic Monuments.

More:
irishtimes.com/news/environment/bronze-age-road-in-midlands-turned-into-potting-compost-1.2368920

irisharchaeology.ie/2015/08/the-destruction-of-a-3000-year-old-bog-roadway-in-co-westmeath/

“While Irish heritage is being celebrated and promoted this week, the destruction of a major archaeological monument, a major timber-built road of European significance at Mayne Bog, Coole, County Westmeath is continuing.

Although the National Monuments Service (NMS, the responsibility of Minister Heather Humphreys) has known since 2005 about the existence of the monument, they have failed to act to preserve it.

The road or Togher was discovered in 2005 and was reported by a concerned local resident, rather than the landowner or the industrial peat company Westland Horticulture who are extracting compost from the site.

The National Monuments Service subsequently instigated the excavation of a few meters of the 657m long roadway, which established that:

The monument was a substantial transversely laid plank built roadway. It was no mere trackway, it measured from 4.3m to 6m in width. The recorded length of the road was 675m, but it was seen to extend beyond both recorded limits.

A carbon 14 date of 1200-820 BC was obtained from the timbers, making it a remarkable structure of Bronze Age date, 1000 years older than the celebrated Corlea Bog roadway in neighbouring County Longford.

The excavators recommended further archaeological work but this was never acted upon. What did happen was that peat extraction work continued unabated. What is worse is that the monument was never even properly listed or given any legal protection ...”
(Contd.)