Corlea Trackway, Iron Age trackway in Longford County, Ireland.
Corlea Trackway is an Iron Age wooden road in County Longford, in the Irish Midlands, built from oak planks laid across rails over bogland. A section of the original structure is kept indoors at a dedicated visitor center, where the planks are maintained in a controlled environment to prevent them from drying out.
The trackway was built around 148 BC, during the Iron Age, and is one of the best preserved of its kind found in Europe. Excavations carried out up to 1991 uncovered more than a hundred similar wooden roads across the surrounding region.
The name Corlea refers to the boggy area where the road was laid down. In the visitor center, you can see how oak planks were fitted together on rails to form a walkable surface over soft, wet ground.
The visitor center is open seasonally, so it is worth checking access times before you travel. The site sits in a rural part of the Irish Midlands, and having your own vehicle makes the journey straightforward.
The oak planks are so well preserved that scientists were able to identify the exact year the trees were felled: 148 BC. This was done through dendrochronology, a method that reads the growth rings in wood like a natural calendar.
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