Ogham stone

The National Monuments Service's description

National Monument No. 10039. Cahernagat/Cathair na gCat: A small, circular cashel KE042-093---- situated on the lower, SSE facing slopes of Croaghmarhin. In the interior are the remains of 2 stone huts, a souterrain and an ogham stone.

Ogham Stone: This lies loose on the surface of the cashel, in the vicinity of the souterrain. It was discovered within the cashel in 1855 by Rev. James Goodman (Hitchcock 1856, 439-41). Curran (no. 14) was informed by Goodman's family that the stone had been found acting as the entrance lintel to the souterrain. Ferguson (1887, 39) stated that it had been found in an adjoining killeen but this is not consistent with the various other accounts of its provenance. The stone was smashed into 3 pieces in the 1880's and one fragment was lost. The 2 fragments visible today measure 1.81m overall and the inscription reads: TOGITTACC MAQI SAGARET(TOS). The last 3 letters were carved on the missing fragment, but there is no disagreement between the readings by Du Noyer (Antiquarian Sketches, 1, 28), Hitchcock, Brash (1879, 220) and Ferguson.

The above description is derived from J. Cuppage, ‘Corca Dhuibhne. Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey. Ballyferriter. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne’ (1986), no. 549.

This stone has been studied as part of the ‘Ogham in 3D’ project undertaken by the School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. To access details go to the following website: http://ogham.celt.dias.ie/search.php?ciic=172

Updated by: Paul Walsh

Revised date of upload: 2 January 2015

References

Hitchcock, R. 1856 On an Inscription in the Ogham Character. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 6, 439-41.

Ferguson, S. 1887 Ogham Inscriptions in Ireland, Wales and Scotland. Edinburgh.

Brash, R.R. 1879 The ogam inscribed monuments of the gaedhil in the British Islands. London. George Bell and Sons.

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

McManus, D. 1991 A guide to ogam. Maynooth: Monographs 4. Maynooth. An Sagart.