Ogham stone (present location), Beaufort, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Stone Monuments

Ogham stone (present location), Beaufort, Co. Kerry

Beside a woodland path on the western bank of the Laune River, not far from Beaufort House, stands a stone that has no real business being there.

It originated on the Dingle Peninsula, near Camp, where it was found sometime around the middle of the nineteenth century, and at some point it was moved to this riverside setting in Co. Kerry, far from where it was first carved. That relocation alone gives it an unsettled quality, the sense of an object displaced from its original context and quietly absorbed into a new one.

Ogham is an early medieval Irish script in which letters are represented by notches and strokes cut along the edge of a stone, typically recording a personal name in a formulaic genealogical phrase. This particular stone stands 1.25 metres high and is just under half a metre wide, orientated north to south. A perforation near its top suggests it was pressed into service as a gatepost at some point in its history, an indignity not uncommon for ancient inscribed stones, which were often reused as convenient building materials. The surface is rough, and the inscription is correspondingly difficult to read, the vowels especially so. R. A. S. Macalister, writing in 1945, interpreted what remained as something approximating CCILARI AV(I) ....COI VAG..., a partial personal name and patronymic now worn beyond confident reconstruction. More intriguing still, a second inscription is faintly discernible near the top of one of the opposite angles, where the letters ANI survive. Whether this represents an earlier text, a later addition, or simply a fragment of something longer, is not clear.

The stone sits beside a woodland path to the south-east of Beaufort House, and its present setting, shaded and somewhat removed from the road, means it is easy to pass without noticing. Its worn surface rewards close inspection rather than a glance from a distance, particularly the angled edges where the ogham strokes were originally cut.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Ogham stone (present location), Beaufort, Co. Kerry. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement