The heart of the community of Glenullin is the bog. Saved by passionate local residents this is a site of high archaeological potential. This is not a unique site but Northern Ireland contains 25% of the UK’s raised bogs. Glenullin bog is one of enormous potential because archaeologists have had the opportunity to investigate sites in Ireland and beyond. The destruction of these sites across north west Europe indicates how valuable the resource of Glenullin bog is.

The bog is a time capsule. It is waterlogged and within it anaerobic conditions prevail. This means that the normal mechanisms of degradation of buried material have been suspended. In normal, aerobic ground conditions organic matter decays and is lost from the archaeological record. In such circumstances the archaeological record will consist of stone, metal, bone and ceramic artifacts.

Where ground conditions are anaerobic organic matter will survive. Quite commonly this will lead to the preservation of timber track-ways, such as that from the Somerset Levels, England, known as The Sweet Track. For most of human history objects made of organic materials were probably the most numerous every-day objects, particularly clothing and domestic tools. The survival of such objects in the bogs of Ireland presents an opportunity to learn a great deal about their crafts skills and techniques of early technologies.

Probably the greatest archaeological value of the bog is its potential to reveal the history of the environment of the valley of Glenullin. The bog is surrounded on all sides by upland landscapes and would seem to be an ideal location for a study of the palaeo-ecology. From its beginnings 10, 000 years or so ago the bog has been the repository for plant material. Of this material the most important will been the pollen which will have been wind blown into the bog. Pollen can survive in the waterlogged conditions of a bog for many thousands of years in a recognisable form.

The pollen indicates the plants growing in the immediate area and, in turn, the plant types are an indicator of the prevailing climatic conditions at the particular time the plants were growing. A core taken through the bog to its base will reveal the history of climatic change in Glenullin over the last 8000 years. With the use of radiocarbon dating from a sample of organic matter in the core an absolute date could be found and the full sequence tied into real dates. Along with pollen other ecofacts will be present in the bog such as larger plant fragments and insects remain. The latter in particular will help to interpret the history of environmental change within the Glenullin area.

Such events as deforestation, the introduction of agriculture, changes in agricultural regime and periods of relative drought and will all be recorded.

The bog is a rich repository of potentially highly significant archaeological material. If it were found to contain significant structural remains then these and the bog that contain them would be worthy of designation as a Scheduled Monument.