Ogham Stones in Ardmore
There are roughly 400 surviving Ogham inscriptions on stone monuments throughout Ireland and western Britain, the bulk of them are in the south of Ireland, in Counties Kerry, Cork and Waterford. The vast majority of the inscriptions consist of personal names and were used as either grave markers or territorial markers. Ogham takes the form of lines and notches at the angle of a stone to denote letters. It is based on the Latin alphabet and is read from the base of the stone upwards to the top. The date of the inscriptions spans from the 4th century to the late 7th century.
Two of the 3 Ogham stones found in Ardmore have been relocated within the Cathedral
The first Ogham stone is 1.27m high and has the following inscription
LUGUDECCAS MAQI[ ̣ ̣ ? ̣ ̣MU]/COI NETA SEGAMONAS/ DOLATI BIGAISGOB… which translates as ‘of Luguid son of …? descendant of Nad-Segamon’. McManus (1991, 65)
The second Ogham stone is 1.3m high and has a small incised cross upon the sloping top of the stone, on the side opposite to the inscription which reads AMADU which can be translated as “beloved”. McManus (1991, 117).The third stone, which is kept in the National Museum of Ireland has the inscription …]NACI MAQI [… “of Anac, son of “
If you like to know more about Ogham stones an interesting link is https://ogham.celt.dias.ie ogham in 3D project
