Ogham stone

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture, on a gentle S-facing slope on the N side of the valley of the Mealagh River. Macalister (1945, vol. 1, 59) recorded an ogham inscription on the dexter edge of the E face of the upright SW stone (H 2m; Wth 1.1m; T 0.6m) of a pair of standing stones (CO106-035----). He read the ogham inscription as ANM SAINA MAG OGALA MUCOI TEMOCA (ibid.). Only faint traces of this inscription, which was damaged some time after 1845, are now visible. Macalister also recorded that there may have been a third stone here up to 1870 (Macalister 1945, 59, no. 55; Macalister 1907, 31-7). The ogham stone was probably part of a prehistoric stone alignment and the inscription added at a later date to emphasise a land ownership or territorial claim. It is in an area with a concentration of such prehistoric monuments. The long axis of the stone is NE/SW (F. Moore field notes) which would support the suggestion that it is prehistoric in origin. When examined by F. Moore in the early 1980s only traces of the final four letters of the inscription could be discerned and while these were quite vague they were undoubtedly ogham scores, knife cut in the style of many Cork oghams. (Ronan et al. 2009, no. 16165)

Compiled by: Nora White

Date of upload: 18 April 2016

References

Macalister, R.A.S. 1945 Corpus inscriptionum insularum celticarum. Dublin. Stationery Office.

Ronan, S., Byrne, E. & Egan, U. 2009 Archaeological Inventory of County Cork, Vol. V: Addendum. Dublin. Stationery Office.