Darrynane Beg Ogham Stone

The Darrynane Beg Ogham Stone (also known as the Caherdaniel Ogham Stone) is a National Monument near Caherdaniel in Co. Kerry.

Ogham is an ancient Irish alphabet and our earliest written source for the Irish language. The ogham alphabet uses a script made of lines cut on, across, or either side of a central 'stem' line. Ogham inscriptions were usually written vertically and are read from bottom to top. Ogham stones appear to have been erected either as memorials or territorial markers and usually record the name of a person with a standard formula such as: “X son of Y, member of the tribe of Z”. Although the alphabet was designed for the Irish language, a few Latin inscriptions in ogham also survive in Ireland. There are about 400 surviving ogham inscriptions. Approximately 350 of these are in Ireland with the largest number of ogham stones located in counties Cork, Kerry and Waterford. Around 50 ogham inscriptions have been discovered in Britain with ogham stones located in Wales, Scotland, The Isle of Mann, and in Cornwall and western England.

The Darrynane Beg Ogham Stone is made from a piece of sandstone just over 2 meters in height which bares the inscription:

ANM ḶḶATỊG̣[NI] Ṃ[A]Q [MINE]ṚC/ Ṃ[UCOI Q ̣ ̣ ? ̣ ̣CI?] ( [in the] name of Llatigni, son of Minerc, of the tribe of Q...ci"

The stone was originally discovered lying flat on Darrynane Strand, and was moved to its current location in the 1940s.

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This national monument is protected in accordance with the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014