Ogham stone

The National Monuments Service's description

National Monument No. 10041. This ogham stone was the first to be recorded in this country. An account of it is included in a manuscript note by Edward Lhwyd dating to about 1702-7 (Brash 1879, 173). At that time the stone stood upright in a field near the strand at Trabeg. By the early 19th century it lay on the adjacent shore, washed by the high tide (OSNB Dingle, 46). According to Macalister (1945, 172-3) it was removed to Chute Hall about 1849 but was soon returned. It now lies recumbent on a concrete base on the seashore near its original location. Though now unassociated with any other monument, Windele (1838, 158) referred to a tradition of an old church at the strand, and Curran (no.22) located a graveyard a few metres inland. A single grave was visible in a bank that had been worn away by the sea and he was locally informed that others had been found during ploughing. On the OS maps the name Lackshivaunnageelagh/Leac Shiobhán na nGeimhleach is erroneously applied to the stone. According to An Seabhac (1939, 29) this properly applies to an isolated rock further out on the strand. Curran refers to the stone as Cloch an tSagairt.

It is 2.4m long, 0.7m wide at base tapering to 0.4m at top and is c. 0.25m thick. A plain Latin cross is inscribed on the present upper surface. The ogham inscription, which runs along one edge of the same face, reads: BRUSCCOS MAQQI CAL(I)AC(I). Both I's in the final word have been damaged but there is sufficient space for the scores. Macalister claimed to have seen the lower tip of an M along the upper edge of the stone and, on the strength of this, he suggested that the inscription continued as CALIACI(AS) MAQQI MUCOI..... This suggested restoration is not supported by any marks on the stone and even the M score is very doubtful. The second L score appears to have been shortened to avoid the arm of the cross. This suggests that the ogham inscription was carved after the cross though the time lapse may not have been great.
Macalister noted some small scores at the bottom of the inscribed angle which appeared to form OBAM. These are probably natural or accidental marks.

The above description is derived from J. Cuppage, ‘Corca Dhuibhne. Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey. Ballyferriter. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne’ (1986), no. 804.

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=180

Updated by: Paul Walsh

Revised date of upload: 6 January 2015

References

Cuppage, J. 1986 Corca Dhuibhne. Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey. Ballyferriter. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne.

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.

OSNB - Ordnance Survey Name Books. Pro-forma books arranged by Civil Parish for recording townland and other name-forms and compiled in the course of the OS 6-inch survey 1824-1841. The name books also include minor names and incidental references to antiquities. National Archives of Ireland.

Seabhac, An. 1939 Triocha-Céad Chorca Dhuibhne. Dublin.