The stones in question carry ogham inscriptions, a writing system used in Ireland roughly from the fourth to the seventh century AD, in which letters are represented by groups of notches and strokes cut along the edge or face of a stone. That they survive at all is partly a matter of luck, and partly a matter of who happened to take an interest.

The story begins in the townland of Rockfield Middle, Co. Kerry, where six ogham stones were discovered repurposed as roof lintels inside a souterrain, an underground stone-lined passage typically associated with an early medieval rath or ringfort. Their presence there as building material suggests they had already lost whatever commemorative or boundary function they once served. Writing in 1891, Barry recorded their discovery, and by 1945 R.A.S. Macalister, the great cataloguer of Irish ogham stones, had traced their subsequent movements. Four of the six had been taken from the souterrain and built into a cottage in the nearby village of Laharan. Three of those four were then removed again and brought to the mansion of Lord Dunraven at Adare, Co. Limerick, where Macalister confirmed they remained at the time of writing. The fourth stone stayed behind in Laharan and, as Macalister put it, is now lost to sight. One of the three at Adare, measuring roughly 1.07 metres by 0.27 metres by 0.37 metres and inscribed on two angles, carries a reading Macalister transcribed as CORBAGNI MAQI BIVITI, a personal name formula meaning something like "Corbagni, son of Bivitus," a construction typical of early ogham memorial inscriptions.

The Dunraven mansion in question is Adare Manor, which sits on the edge of Adare village beside the River Maigue. The stones are held there rather than displayed in any public archaeological context, so a visitor hoping to see them should be aware that access depends on the manor's current arrangements rather than any open heritage site. It is worth contacting the estate in advance. The inscription on the Rockfield Middle stone is not one of the more celebrated ogham texts, but its journey, from a Kerry ringfort to a cottage wall to a Limerick estate, says something about how early medieval monuments were treated across the centuries, shifted around and built over until someone with the means and inclination decided they were worth keeping.