Ogham stone (present location)

The National Monuments Service's description

National Monument No. 385. A total of seven ogham stones were incorporated into a souterrain (KE065-078----), marked ‘Cave’ on the OS maps, discovered in 1838 by workmen building a field boundary across a slight rise in Dunloe Castle demesne... It was roofed by nine slabs, six of which bore ogham inscriptions. One of the larger ogham stones had cracked in antiquity and was supported by a seventh, which stood upright in the souterrain passage. A number of bones and skulls, some of which were reputedly human, were found in the souterrain. In 1940 the ogham stones were removed from the site by the OPW, and were erected close to a public roadway nearby. The souterrain was subsequently filled back and no surface trace remains.
(A) This stone (KE065-078001-) stands 1.2m high, and is up to .3m in width and .11m in thickness. It stood upside down in the souterrain passage supporting (2) (see KE065-078004-), which served as a lintel. Macalister (1945, 193, no. 199) read the inscription as: CUNACENA. (O'Sullivan and Sheehan 1996, no. 863)

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=199

Compiled by: Nora White

Date of upload: 11 February 2017

This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 66/1938).

References

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

O'Sullivan, A. and Sheehan, J. 1996 The Iveragh peninsula: an archaeological survey of South Kerry. Cork University press.

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