Ferguson — On Ogham Inscription at Bnastagh. 201 



XXXII. — On a recently-discovered Ogham. Inscription at Breas- 



TAGH, IN THE COUNTY OF MAYO. By SAMUEL FERGUSON, L.L.D., V. P. 



[Read June 8, 1874.] 



This monument exists on the lands of Breastagh (Ordnance Map of 

 Mayo, sheet 15), in the parish of Templemurry, and barony of Tiraw- 

 ley, 350 j^ards from the hamlet of Millaghnacross, to the west of the 

 road leading northward from Killala to Foghill and Killcummin. It is 

 not marked on the Ordnance Map, but lies centrally among several 

 groups of Cromlechs, which are indicated in the same lands of Breas- 

 tagh, and in the adjoining lands of Carbadmore and Rathfran. 



The names of these localities will recall associations of interest, and 

 may invite to long historic retrospect. Rathfran was undoubtedly a 

 residence of Amalgaid, or Awley, the cotemporary of Patrick, from 

 whom the barony takes its name, and in Foghill we probably have 

 some trace, in its northern limits, of that wood of Fochlaidh, celebrated 

 in all the lives of the saint :• for it is worthy of remark that we are here 

 in the centime of the tract called Caille Connail, from that Conall, grand- 

 son of Awley, from whom, in the Tripartite Life — as from his father 

 Endeus, in the other lives— Patrick is said to have first heard of the 

 existence in reality of the wood of Fochlaidh of his vision. The other 

 places in the neighbourhood connecting it with the family of Awley, 

 are Fersad Tresi, a mile to the south-east, where Awley' s wife Tresi was 

 drowned in the creek of Rathfran ; and Kilcummin, the foundation of 

 his grandson Cummin Foda, two and a-half miles to the north-east. 

 Dun Finne also, six miles further north, near the present village of 

 Ballycastle, was the scene of the capture of the " three Maols," who in 

 the second generation after Awley, were put to death for the murder of 

 his grand-nephew, Bishop Ceallagh, son of Eoghan Bel, son of Dathi, 

 Awley's elder brother. Their reputed sepulchre, a perfect Cromlech, 

 exists at Ballina, twelve miles to the south, and possibly reflects some 

 light on the epoch to which we should refer the Cromlechs surrounding 

 the locality of this inscription. 



Its existence was unknown in modern times, until the month of 

 April in the present year, when W. K. Dover, Esq., an English gentle- 

 man temporarily resident at Castle Connor, in exploring the neighbour- 

 ing megalithic remains, observed the great prostrate pillar-stone, and, 

 on closer examination, recognized the Ogham characters on one of its 

 exposed angles. He communicated his discovery to A. G. More, Esq., 

 M. R. I. A., who was good enough to make it known to me, and the result 

 was, that, accompanied by Mr. Dover, I visited the spot on Whit- 

 Monday and Whit- Tuesday last, and took the casts which I have now 

 the honour to exhibit to the Academy. 



These were not obtained without much labour, a great part of one 

 day being spent in turning over the stone, so as to expose an angle of 

 the lower face, on which it was apparent that other Ogham characters 

 existed. For this purpose, the earth had to be dug away along the 



