An 'Ireland-wide network'? Hmm.  The study that everybody keeps going back
to about it was undertaken by Colm O Lochlainn back in 1940 ('Roadways in
ancient Ireland' in Féíl-sgríbhinn Eóin Mc Néill: essays and studies
presented to Professor Eoin MacNeill, John Ryan ed., Dublin 1940).  There's
been a lot of cribs about it, but nobody has come up with anything better.
Basically O Lochlainn analysed a system of five highways (class 1 roads
with room for two chariots) running out from -- he says -- Dublin.  The *Slighe
Mhór* went across through Clonmacnoise to the area of Galway; the *Slighe
Dhala *via Roscrea and Limerick to Foynes and Tarbert near the Shannon
mouth; the *Slighe Mhidhluachra* went up through Dundalk and Newry to
Dunseverick; the *Slighe Assail* branched off from the Slighe Mhidhluachra
a little north of Drogheda and continued west by way of Fore and
Edgeworthstown to Rathcroghan; the *Slighe Chualann* headed south through
Baltinglass and St. Mullins to Waterford.  Matthew Stout gave a lecture a
few years ago to the Friends of Medieval Dublin tearing apart the kind of
research that O Lochlainn used to come up with this pattern, but
unfortunately nobody has yet made any serious effort to improve on it.  So:
as far as we can see at present, the above are the main chariot roads that,
if we believe the law text quoted in my previous e-mail, ran along the
edges of the main kingdoms.  Within these kingdoms there were slightly
lesser roads, also usable by chariot (class 2), and the whole was
interlaced then with bridle paths, access roads and cow-tracks (classes 3,
4 and 5).

So, yes, an Ireland-wide network, but how much of that accommodated chariot
traffic is far from clear.

On Sun, Nov 25, 2018 at 12:43 PM Charles Simmonds <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> so it's fair to asume then that there was effectively an Ireland-wide
> network of roads/tracks that was negotiable by wheeled traffic?
>
> Am 25.11.2018 um 10:16 schrieb lenore fischer:
> > There's a very good article on roads by Charles Doherty in *Clerics,
> Kings
> > and Vikings: Essays on medieval Ireland in honour of Donnchadh Ó Corráin*
> > (ed. Emer Purcell et al.), Four Court Press, Dublin, 2015, pp 21-30.  On
> > page 25 he quotes Fergus Kelly's translation of the law-tracts to the
> > effect that there are five kinds of roads.
> >       (1) The biggest is the highway on which two chariots can pass.
> >       (2) A regular road has room for two horsemen to pass a chariot out,
> > and seems to be 'a horse-road of the locality internally', by which I
> take
> > it the text means that it's within something like a tuath? a kingdom or
> > sub-kingdom?
> >       (3) A by-road connects two highways; it serves 'for errands and
> > winter-visiting'. Interestingly enough the law-tract indicates that a
> > by-road cuts across a 'locality' (kingdom or tuath?) while the highways
> run
> > along the locality's periphery.
> >       (4) a 'curved road' for which a toll is charged; it gives access to
> > private property or specific resources? (See Doherty's discussion, page
> 27.)
> >       (5) The cow-track or bother, as we still call it.
> > The law-tracts further assert that these roads are to be regularly
> > maintained, i.e. the vegetation cut back, standing or running water
> drained
> > off, and the ditches cleared.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Nov 22, 2018 at 8:26 PM Richard Marsh <
> > [log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> >> Again by memory from Barry Raftery's talk: bogs were "paved" by light
> >> planks
> >> of locally sourced wood, which would sort of float well enough to bear
> the
> >> relatively light chariots. I don't know how heavily laden carts would
> >> fare.
> >> For the unfinished 2nd-century Corlea Trackway in County Longford, which
> >> Raftery excavated, the workers ignorantly used thick oak planks, which
> >> sank.
> >>
> >> I asked Raftery and folklorist Dáithí Ó hÓgáin if that was the road
> built
> >> by
> >> Midir to settle a fidchell win by King Eochaid in the Midir and Étaín
> >> tale,
> >> and both said they were about 80% sure it was. The story says that
> >> Eochaid's
> >> people spied on the building of the road against Midir's express wishes,
> >> and
> >> that's why he didn't finish the road. The road in the story seems to be
> >> located exactly where the Corlea Trackway is. As a humble storyteller
> with
> >> no academic reputation at risk, I'm 100% sure they're the same.
> >>
> >> Richard Marsh
> >> Dublin
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Charles Simmonds
> >> Sent: Thursday, November 22, 2018 6:39 PM
> >> To: [log in to unmask]
> >> Subject: Re: [OLD-IRISH-L] Welsh Chariot Burial
> >>
> >> apologies for repeating this question, but last time no-one could give a
> >> satisfactory answer
> >>
> >> I often wonder how could chariots be effectively used in the conditions
> >> that obtained in Iron Age Ireland or Britain? (absence of roads and
> >> bridges, woods, boggy land)...it must have been something of a
> >> logistical challenge even to get your chariot from A to B, even it was
> >> relatively light because it was made of wickerwork; furthermore, the
> >> horse collar and harness did not come into widespread use in Europe
> >> until the 12th century, so presumably the horses drew the chariot with a
> >> kind of yoke, which is not very efficient
> >>
> >> perhaps battles involving chariots took place on specially prepared
> >> fields, a bit like "away matches" on football pitches?
> >>
> >> CS
> >>
> >>
> >> Am 22.11.2018 um 19:07 schrieb Máire Nig Ualghairg:
> >>> The chariot may deteriorate quickly but the metal work you would
> >>> expect in a chariot burial would be expected to survive. This one is
> >>> the first that has been found in this area and it is, if I remember
> >>> correctly, a custom normally associated with the Parisi in Yorkshire
> >>> (and, coincidentally with the Parisi in the area around what is now
> >>> Paris). This has been found in Pembrokeshire which is quite a distance
> >>> away from the Parisi and would have been in the territory of the
> >>> Demetae (Dyfed) - it's all very exciting and I would love to know
> >>> where they have found it but, naturally, they aren't releasing the
> >>> exact location.
> >>>
> >>> Máire
> >>> On Thu, 22 Nov 2018 at 18:00, Richard Marsh
> >>> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >>>> By memory from a talk by the late wetlands specialist archaeologist
> >> Barry
> >>>> Raftery: remains of roads designed for chariot traffic have been found
> >> in
> >>>> Ireland. Also bits for chariot horses. He said he knew they were for
> >>>> pairs
> >>>> of chariot horses because only one side was decorated, as only one
> side
> >>>> would be seen. Irish chariots were made of wicker, which quickly
> >>>> dissolved
> >>>> in soil, so none have been found. I don't know what he may have
> >> published
> >>>> on
> >>>> the subject.
> >>>>
> >>>> Richard Marsh
> >>>> Dublin
> >>>>
> >>>> -----Original Message-----
> >>>> From: Tom Smith
> >>>> Sent: Thursday, November 22, 2018 12:51 PM
> >>>> To: [log in to unmask]
> >>>> Subject: [OLD-IRISH-L] Welsh Chariot Burial
> >>>>
> >>>> This was found in Pembrokeshire, which is very close to Wexford. Why
> >> have
> >>>> none been found in Ireland?
> >> https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-46294000=
> >>>>
> >>>> ---
> >>>> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
> >>>> https://www.avast.com/antivirus
>