Og(h)am of the Month: February 2023
Since some of the OG(H)AM team will be heading Stateside in early March to share our findings with colleagues in Boston, it seems timely to feature an Ogam of the Month with a US connection. The manuscript now known as ‘Dunnington 1’, bequeathed to the School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies in 2017 by the late Professor Edgar Slotkin of the University of Cincinnati, was one of two Irish manuscripts purchased by Mr Michael Dunnington in Lexington, Kentucky during the early 1980s. The volume, which had come into the possession of the Holy Cross Fathers of Cincinnati, consists of a collection of Irish tales and poems written in the nineteenth century, mainly by a scribe named ‘Uilliam Breathnach’, who records the date 1813 in two places and gives his place of writing as County Waterford. Two other colophons in Dunnington MS 1 mention a ‘Uilliam Ó Eichiaruinn’ (‘Ó hEachthigheirn’ or ‘Hearne’), possibly the owner of the book, whose signature appears at the end of the manuscript alongside several doodles, including some ogam script near the centre of the final page:
(image courtesy of Irish Script on Screen)
Slotkin made only a brief note about this ogam in his catalogue description of Dunnington MS 1, stating that ‘The name William Hearne appears […] on the last page of the manuscript in both English and in ogam’. Upon closer inspection, however, the ogam does not appear to be a transcription of Hearne’s name: rather, the first ten symbols should probably be transcribed as PATTMULLER. These are followed by an eleventh symbol of doubtful value, shaped a little bit like a lozenge:
The significance of this little scrap of ogam script is uncertain: could it be the name of someone once associated with or in possession of the manuscript, or is it merely more doodling on the part of the scribe? For now this remains a mystery, but the appearance of ogam in this context offers yet another illustration of the longevity and popularity of the writing system in Irish manuscript culture of the modern period.
Og(h)am of the Month: January 2023
Our first Ogham of the Month for 2023 is one of three certain ogham stones from Co. Wexford (4 more are doubtful/lost). Listed by Macalister as ‘Houseland’, the find site of Brecaun’s church is actually in the neighbouring townland of Portersgate. Located at the edge of a cliff on the East side of the Hook Peninsula, the graveyard is long lost to coastal erosion and unfortunately the church is gradually following the same fate with little now remaining (old and more recent images here).
Three fragments of the stone survive and are now part of the National Museum of Ireland ogham collection. The lower (and largest) fragment of the stone was discovered in 1845 by Mr Hugh Nevin of Waterford ‘beneath the clay cliff under the ruins [of the church] in the course of some geological researches on the promontory of Hook’. The second fragment (most of the top) was discovered almost 100 years later ‘near the church’ by Rev. Thos. Cloney, P.P., Templetown, Fethard. A third, small fragment was recovered in the 1987 excavation of the site.
Above right: Drawing by Macalister (1945) including his suggested reconstruction of the missing section on the top left.
The inscription is on the rounded sides of the stone (reading from bottom left, up-top-down). The strokes are very carefully spaced, aiding legibility, and clear apart from partial damage to a couple of letters (RC) in the final word. Macalister read the inscription as SEDAN[I MAQQI CAT]TABBOTT AVVI DERCMASOC ‘of Sétnae son of Cathub Uí Dercmossaig’, with suggested letters in square brackets from the missing part of the stone based on the space available and what might be reasonably expected. The proposed personal name CATTABBOTT (Old Irish Cathub, genitive Cathboth, later Cathbad)is found in an earlier form on an ogham stone from Greenhill, Co. Cork (CATTUBUTTAS). The third fragment, discovered in 1987, is too small to confirm Macalister’s restoration but, with just four identifiable strokes and the remains of a probable fifth, it could be a Q of the suggested MAQQI. AVVI DERCMASOC ‘descendants of Dercmossach’ appears to be the Uí Dercmossaig kin group. However, according to later genealogical sources, this group were located further North in the Dublin area.
The linguistic evidence (syncope (i.e. loss of internal vowels) in DERC†MASOC) suggests an approximate dating of this inscription to the late sixth or early seventh century.
Og(h)am of the Month: December 2022
Og(h)am of the Month: November 2022
This month’s ogham is a very recent one, penned in 2022 by Scottish-based, Irish artist Thomas Keyes who combines a background in the Belfast 90s graffiti-scene with expert knowledge of the working methods of medieval Insular scribes. In collaboration with academic, Dr Michael Newton, as part of a Glaschu Beo Gaelic arts residency, Keyes illuminated tales of the Tuatha Dé Danann (the ‘old gods’ of Irish medieval tradition) in the style of the Book of Kells, yet ‘with a graffiti twist’: on parchment with graffiti markers and a lichen-based spray paint.
Here is a detail of a page depicting four members of the Tuatha Dé Danann outside their home at Newgrange: the Dagda, Nuadu, Brighid, and, at the bottom, Ogma, who, according to the 9th century tract on ogham An Lebor Ogaim ‘the Book of Ogham’, was the inventor of the script. Keyes depicts him penning an ogham message: CHRUTHAICH MI OGHAM ‘I created ogham’.
The lettering is in the authentic style of manuscript ogham, laid out horizontally, with a ‘feather-mark’ directional indicator at the start, and a wedge-shaped serif at the beginning of each down stroke.
Thomas Keyes’ latest project ‘Making Kells’ aims to recreate an illuminated page from the Book of Kells ‘exactly as the original artist did it, with everything made from scratch … from parchment to pigments to quill pens’. You can support this project via his Kickstarter:
Og(h)am of the Month: October 2022
Bemaken (Bymacan) Friary 2 (M-IOM-004)
This month’s ogham comes from the Isle of Man and is one of five Manx examples discussed in a recent article on the subject by Prof. George Broderick (‘The Manx Ogam Inscriptions: a reappraisal’, Études celtiques 47 (2021), 83-124, at 102-104).
The stone is an unusually small granite boulder (0.47×0.2×0.39m). It was found in 1893 in the parish of Kirk Arbory, in the southern part of the island, and is said to have been built into a boundary wall between Friary farm and the farm of Ballaclague (NGR SC 2490 7040). It is now on display in the Manx Museum (MM4).
The stone’s arching upper angle is inscribed with a single name: MAQLEOG (Mac-Liäc). The lack of word-endings indicates this inscription is not older than the mid-sixth century (i.e. it post-dates the sound-change apocope which happened around this time), and is perhaps more likely to date to the seventh century. Lía (genitive: liäc, later líac) means ‘stone’, especially an upright stone or pillar. It is the word most commonly used for an ogham-inscribed pillar. The spelling G is typical in ogham for word internal /g/, where the OIr (i.e. manuscript) spelling would be c, just as word-internal /b/ and /d/ are written B D in ogham, but p t in OIr.
The same name Mac-Líac is found again, with the vowel sound spelled slightly differently, on another ogham stone, from Ballyeightragh, Co. Kerry (I-KER-037; CIIC 169): MAQI-LIAG MAQI-ERCA. The latter features not one but two names with this same structure: ‘son’ + an inanimate noun (Mac-Liäc (‘son-of-stone’) (son) of Mac-Erc (‘son-of-the-female-speckled-one)’. Names with this structure are reasonably common (e.g. Mac-dara ‘son-of-oak’, or Mac-bethad ‘son-of-life’), and the feminine equivalent was Dar– (‘daughter, i.e. devotee, of’). While not a common name, Mac-Liäc does crop up now and again in the historical sources. There’s even a saint called Mac-Líac (from Drumglass, Co. Tyrone). The most famous bearer of the name was Mac-Líac (a.k.a. Muirchertach, son of Cú Chertaig), [DS1] chief poet of Ireland, whose death is recorded in the Irish annals in 1015.
The name’s use on Man gave rise to the Manx surname MacCluag, or Clague. A branch of this family occupied (and gave their name to) the farm Ballaclague (equivalent to Irish Baile (mhi)c-Líag) where this stone was found. Their presence there is recorded since at least the sixteenth century. Remarkably, this stone appears to commemorate their eponymous ancestor a millennium (!) earlier.
There’s a 3-D model of the stone on Sketchfab courtesy of Manx National Heritage.
[DS1]His name is given as Muirchertach mac Con Certaig Mac-Líac in early spelling, so if you translate his name it should be Muirchertach, son of Cú Chertaig.
Og(h)am of the Month: September 2022
35 of the c. 40 ogam inscriptions in Wales, Cornwall and Devon are bilingual, i.e., they contain text in Latin and Irish, usually – but not always – with identical content. The Latin text often displays unclassical features, e.g. ‘wrong’ case endings. The stone from Nevern, Pembrokeshire (W-PEM-014) is built into a church windowsill. The two versions read:
Irish: MAGLICUNAS MAQI CLUTA[RIGAS]
Latin: MAGLOCVN(I) FILI CLVTORI
The archaic retention of all endings, the lack of vowel affection (-CUNAS and CLUTA-, not younger *-CON and *CLOT-), and the lack of syncope of the middle vowels mean that it probably belongs to the oldest layer of Irish inscriptions in Britain. There are subtle differences between the two languages. In Irish, the name of the commemorated person shows the consonant-stem genitive ending -as, as is expected for the Proto-Celtic *kū, gen. *kunos ‘dog, hound’. In Latin, this has been replaced by the productive o-stem ending -ī; in CLVTORI the entire second part *-rīgī has been reduced to just -rī.
The choice of names is revealing: MAGLICUNAS is an archaic form of Welsh Maelgwn or Meilgi; the corresponding Irish name would be *Málchú, but this is nowhere attested. CLUTARIGAS likewise only has onomastic parallels in British (e.g., W Clodri, Bret. Corn. Cleder); Old Irish only has the generic expression clothrí ‘famous king’. Therefore, while the inscription is in an Irish script, uses Irish endings and the Irish word MAQI, the names are gaelicised British Celtic. This inscription, and others of a similar nature, afford a glimpse into the complex multiethnic and multilingual situation in early medieval Wales.
Og(h)am of the Month: July 2022
Topped Mountain, Co. Fermanagh (I-FER-001 = CIIC 315)
This month’s og(h)am relates to the team’s recent fieldwork in Northern Ireland (which we hope to describe in more detail in a future blog). It was discovered in 1875 by William Wakeman at the base of a massive chambered cairn on the summit of Topped (or Toppit) Mountain in Co. Fermanagh. It is now on display in the Ulster Museum in Belfast.
What we have today is only a fragment of a larger sandstone pillar (surviving piece approx. 43cm x 20cm x 9.5cm). The inscription is clearly cut and evenly spaced along one angle. The surviving portion reads: NETTACU[…]. This is the start of a male name made up of two elements commonly found in ogham inscriptions: NETTA ‘champion, warrior’ and CUNAS ‘dog, hound’(corresponding to later Old Irish Nad-Chon,genitive of Nad-Chú). Other examples of this name occur in inscriptions from Co. Tipperary (I-TIP-002 = CIIC 261. NETACUNAS) and, with the elements in reverse order, in Co. Waterford (I-WAT-043 = CIIC 300. CUN[A]NETAS).
Although Topped Mountain is only 277m high, the 360 degree view from the summit is spectacular, which may account for it being the focal point of a concentration of prehistoric ritual monuments. The siting of the ogham pillar there suggests these ancient associations still resonated in 5th or 6th century AD when it was erected.
See this great video from Enniskillen Museum, talking about the prehistoric importance of the site and with good views.
Og(h)am of the Month: June 2022
In May, Megan and Katherine 3D recorded ogham stones in Aberdeenshire, including this month’s Ogham of the Month: Logie Elphinstone (S-ABD-002; Canmore ID 1855). Logie Elphinstone 2 is a pillar of an unusually pointed shape and measures 1.37m high and 0.46m wide. Like several of the Aberdeenshire ogham stones, it appears to be a reused prehistoric standing stone, formerly part of a stone circle (it was originally discovered with at least two other Pictish symbol stones, a fourth having been destroyed when reused in a kiln).
The stone is incised with two layers of Pictish symbols (the partially erased double-disc is visible under the clearer pair of Crescent-and-V-rod and Double-disc-and-Z-rod). Above the symbols are five ogham letters carved on a circular stem-line. The Buckquoy spindle whorl (March 2022’s Ogham of the month) and the amber bead from Ennis (I-CLA-003) also have stemlines which are circular loops, but in those cases the objects are circular: this is a unique example on flat stone. It may be intended to recall the ogham-inscribed wooden hoops, or withies, referred to in Early Irish sagas as being left on pillar stones as a warning to passersby. The letters can be read QFTQU in a circle, or NFTNU if reading in the other direction, but it is not clear in either case where one is meant to start. Perhaps the text is deliberately cryptic, like some of the fictional oghams described in the sagas.
Og(h)am of the Month: May 2022
The project’s postdoctoral researcher Dr Nora White and myself recently examined the ogham stone at Barnaveddoge/Barr na bhFeadóg (I-LOU-001; CIIC 39). One of just two confirmed ogham stones from Co. Louth, this stone can be found close to a road, just inside a field gate. Cylindrical in shape, it surprises by its enormous size: even though it proved almost impossible to measure accurately, it must be over 2.5m tall and 1.2m wide. It is probably made of sandstone.
R.A.S. Macalister, who discovered it, wrote in the County Louth Archaeological Journal from 1915: “this monument would be extremely interesting in itself; but last year it was found to have the additional interest of an Ogham inscription, which, though worn, is quite legible along its whole length”. In his Corpus Inscription Insularum Celticarum he states that the scores are “widely spaced, so that the single name which they express (…) fills the inscribed angle almost completely”. Examining it today the inscription is weathered and covered by lichen, therefore almost indecipherable. However, a handful of scores are clearly recognizable as ogham and we could confirm at least some of the letters read by Macalister. The surviving scores are 6-6.5cm in length and approximately 1cm in width, with roughly 2cm between them. The whole length of the inscription can only be conjectured, as part of the stone might have broken off or been damaged otherwise. Macalister reads the inscription as BRANOGENI “raven-born”. The preserved ending of the genitive -I and the preserved thematic vowel -O- have an archaic appearance. Sabine Ziegler therefore dated the inscription to 400-500 AD, the earliest phase of ogham usage. The name appears to have no parallel in Old Irish.
Og(h)am of the Month: April 2022
One of the rare examples from the Irish Midlands, this ogam stone was discovered in 1902 in the graveyard of Donaghmore (Domhnach Mór) near Maynooth, Co. Kildare, just across the Royal Canal from Carton House Estate, the seat of the Duke of Leinster, and only 2.4 km in direct line from the place where I am writing these lines. It was discovered by the Duke of Leinster himself, Walter Fitzgerald (1858–1923), who was a renowned antiquarian and amateur archaeologist. The circular layout of the graveyard and the Old Irish name element domnach ‘church’ suggest that Donaghmore may be among the oldest, perhaps even Patrician, church foundations in Ireland. The stone, which is now kept in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin, had served as the headstone for a local family.
The inscription (I-KDE-008 = CIIC 26) is executed with thin, long strokes and reads NETTAVṚOỊCC | MAQỊ MỤCCOỊ TṚE[.]A[..]G̣G̣Ọ. It does not run continuously around the stone, but the individual name is written from bottom left up, and the name of the kin group from bottom right up. The individual name corresponds to Nad-Froích ‘warrior of Fróech’, a common name in Old Irish. This name is found with spelling variation on two other ogam stones in Kerry and Waterford. Although damaged and partly illegible, the name of the eponymous ancestor can be confidently restored as TRENALUGGO, Old Irish *Trénlug ‘having the strength of (the god) Lug’. That name has one certain parallel in Cork; two more possible examples, one of which is in Wales, are uncertain.
Og(h)am of the Month: March 2022
To mark Women’s History Month, March’s Ogam of the Month is one owned (and perhaps written) by a woman. It was excavated in 1971 by Dr Anna Ritchie, first female president of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, at Buckquoy, Orkney. The inscription is lightly incised on a spindle-whorl (the circular weight added to the end of a spindle to keep it spinning round). In the early Middle Ages, spinning was so strongly coded as women’s work that we can be confident that this object would have been owned by a female.
Image: Orkney Museum
Dr Ritchie said: ‘One of my most vivid memories of my career didn’t take place in the field, but in my kitchen when I was washing the finds from Buckquoy when some Ogham letters appeared on a spindle whorl. It was just so exciting.’ (The Scotsman newspaper, 24 January 2022).
The whorl is fashioned from a chalk pebble and is 36mm in diameter. It is now on display in Orkney Museum, Kirkwall.
Ingeniously, the ogham stem-line is draped round the central perforation. This highly unusual circular layout causes some problems in deciphering the text. Though the letters are clear, it is tricky to know where to start. Proposed readings include:
VENDDACTANIM or T’ANIM VENDDAC or BENDDACTANIML
This could be Gaelic, meaning ‘dear Findach’ (Rodway) or ‘a blessing on the soul of L’ (Forsyth).
The spindle-whorl inspired Sheila Fleet OBE, one of Scotland’s leading jewellery designers, to create her ogham-influenced skyran line. Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, owns a Sheila Fleet gold brooch based on the Buckquoy ogham and is often photographed wearing it. She has said: ‘It’s one of my favourites’.
Forsyth, Katherine (1996) ‘The Ogham-inscribed Spindle-whorl from Buckquoy: Evidence for the Irish Language in pre-Viking Orkney?’ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 125, 677-96.
Rodway, Simon (2017) ‘A note on the ogham inscription from Buckquoy, Orkney’, Journal of Celtic Linguistics 18, 103-116.
Og(h)am of the Month: February 2022
In addition to the six ogham stones reused as building material in the church at Knockboy, Co. Waterford (see blog post here), this seventh ogham stone (Knockboy VII, I-WAT-040, CIIC 298) is free-standing in a corner of the church beside the west gable (more information here and 3d model here).
Photo & social media post by stonemason Tom Pollard (right)
This relatively small ogham stone (1.02m), first noted by Rev Power (1898), was described by Macalister (1907) as ‘buried almost to its head, marking a modern grave’ in Knockboy graveyard. Inscribed in ogham on all four angles, although some letters may have been lost through damage to the stone, it reads: VEDABAṚ [—][?][—]LS / MOCOI ODR[—]REA ‘of Fíadbarr [son of ?] of the family of the She-Otter’. The name Fíadbarr is made up of the elements fíad ‘wild’ (eDIL s.v. 2 fíad) and barr ‘top, head’(eDIL s.v. 1 barr). MOCOI ODR(?)REA possibly refers to a kin group later known to us as Odraige ‘people of the She-Otter’ (see here for discussion of odor).
Og(h)am of the Month: January 2022
Notes written in ogam are found in Irish manuscript sources from as early as the ninth century, where the use of the script is often associated with teaching on Latin grammar (see the project blog entry here). Our first ogam of the month reflects this close relationship between ogam and Latin learning in Irish manuscript culture. The text known as the Annals of Inisfallen in Oxford, Bodleian Library MS 503 contains the following note in ogam script under the year 1193:
The two lines of ogam render the Latin words NUMUS HONORATUR SINE NUMO NULLUS AMATUR (‘Money is honoured, without money nobody is loved’), and follow an annal entry concerning the building of a castle at Brí Uis (Mount Bruis) in Co. Tipperary ‘by the foreigners with the consent of Ua Briain, as some say, and to injure Desmumu (Desmond) therefrom’ (for the full text of the annals, see the online edition and translation).
Og(h)am of the Month: December 2021
