Ogham stone

The National Monuments Service's description

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.
(4) This stone (present location KE065-041004-) stands 1.3m high, and is up to .45m in width and .lm in thickness. Prior to its use as a lintel its inscribed face was damaged, resulting in the loss of all vowel-notches and scores on this surface. The remaining scores along the edge and top of the stone were interpreted by Macalister (1945, 195, no. 201) as: ...MC...GE...M..Q...D...E. Neither the second M nor the E, which is apparently represented by the forfid symbol, are now clearly visible. (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=201

Compiled by: Nora White

Date of upload: 13 February 2017

References

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

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