It has received recognition both in Ireland and abroad. Co. Offaly Michael Casey trains students to work the bog oak, yew and pine. Michael's work can be viewed and brought at the studio. Scientifically, bog wood has proved invaluable as a dating tool and for studying climate change. This is made possible because of annual variation in the diameter size of tree rings.
Tree rings are wide in a good and narrow in a poor growth year.
Studying variation in the pattern of tree rings is known as dendrochronology. By studying and matching the patterns in tree rings from a wide range of bog wood samples, a year by year chronology can be built up. Queens University in Belfast has a tree ring record compiled from 4,000 bog oak and other ancient oak timbers that spans 7,000 years. A pine chronology for Ireland is also under development. The tree ring chronology allows accurate dating of anything made from oak or pine in Ireland.