- Chapter Thirty-Three -
Figure 33.4 Three-link horse bit and Y-shaped object, both bronze. Urraghry, Aughrim, Co.
Galway. Scale 1:4.
Horse-drawn vehicles are therefore likely to have been used in Iron Age Ireland
but it is not certain to what extent we can describe such vehicles as chariots. It is
probable that such existed but it seems likely that it is the rather staid reconstruction
extracted from the early literature by Greene (1972) rather than the streamlined
version based on the Llyn Cerrig Bach evidence (Fox 1946) which is closest to early
Irish reality.
More dramatic evidence of the importance of vehicular travel in Iron Age Ireland
is provided by the 2 km long road of massive oak planks which once extended across
stretches of bogland in Corlea and Derraghan More, Co. Longford (Figure 33.5)
(Raftery 1990). Tree-ring analysis indicates a felling date for the Corlea oaks in 148
Be. To construct this routeway thousands of oak planks, many up to 4 m in length,
were laid edge to edge on longitudinally placed roundwood runners. The exceptional
labour involved in the making of this road and its prodigious size leave little room
to doubt that this was a significant artery of communication which must have
been intended primarily for the passage of wheeled vehicles. Indeed, carved wooden