Ogham stone, Dooghmakeon, Co. Mayo
Co. Mayo |
Stone Monuments
In the marram-grass dunes behind Sruhir Strand in Co. Mayo, a stone leans slightly westward, carrying two distinct layers of inscription: an ogham text running along its eastern edge, and a cross carved in a circle on its broad southern face.
Ogham is an early medieval Irish script in which letters are represented by sets of notches and lines cut along the edge of a stone, typically used to record personal names and genealogical formulas. What makes this stone quietly peculiar is how much of it has disappeared into the ground over the centuries, taking the bulk of its inscription with it.
The stone was first recorded in 1897 by Kelly, who found it lying flat in the sand and had it re-erected on the spot. At that point it stood to around 1.67 metres above ground, with the ogham visible in the lower section. By the time Macalister examined it in 1945, the ground had crept up considerably: he measured only 1.32 metres exposed, and noted that more than half the inscription had already spalled away. He could read no more than the tentative fragment ...OVI MAQI, a formula meaning roughly "son of", common on ogham stones. He was unable to confirm an earlier suggestion by Rhys, writing in 1898, that the name CORBAGNI might be read. The stone now stands to roughly a metre above ground, and the base of the cross-in-circle carved on its face sits only a few centimetres above the current surface. The cross itself is an elegant piece of work, its arms and shaft drawn with broadly splayed terminals that merge into the enclosing circle in a single flowing composition, though patches of lichen now obscure parts of the carving. Nearby, around 100 metres to the west, there are recorded burials and a midden, the accumulated refuse deposits that sometimes mark long-term settlement or activity near the shore, suggesting this stretch of coastline was a place of some significance.
The stone sits in open dunes 120 metres east of the northern end of Sruhir Strand. The ogham scores remain visible on the worn eastern angle, though the full inscription lies buried beneath the sand, its content likely beyond recovery unless the dunes shift again.