[ rso ] 



IX. 



ON AN OGHAM INSCEIPTION KECENTLY DISCOVEKED IN 

 COUNTY WICKLOW. 



By PEOFESSOE E. A. S. MACALISTEE, D.Litt., F.S.A. 

 Plate XXXII. 



Read June 26. Published August 10, 1916. 



The Ogham-inscribed monument which forms the subject of this paper was 

 found under curious circumstances. I had occasion, two or three months ago, 

 to purchase some lantern-slides of rude stone monuments from the stock of 

 Mr. Thomas Mason, of Dame Street in this city ; and among them was a slide 

 of this stone, which Mr. Mason had photographed some twelve or fifteen 

 years ago. I found the tips of the scores in examining the lantern-slide. The 

 marks had been seen at the time by Mr. Mason, as he tells me, but he had 

 not been able to make up his mind as to whether they were Ogham or not. 

 The photograph had been taken from the side opposite to the Ogham, so that 

 only the tips of the letters on the H-side were visible ; but it seemed 

 impossible to doubt that the monument was a genuine Ogham. I visited it 

 on 17 April 1916, along with some fi-iends, including the Eev. E. K. Hanna, 

 who kindly placed his motor-car at our disposal, thereby solving the problem 

 of reaching a most inaccessible monument with the minimum of difficulty. 

 The site will be found on the six-inch map, Wicklow slieet 22, a little to the 

 left of the middle of the sheet. The name of the townland is there spelt 

 " Knickeen " — it should be Cnuicin — and the stone is marked " The Long 

 Stone," in italics, not in the Gothic lettering in which antiquities are usually 

 marked. The same is true of the other Ogham in the neighbourhood, that 

 now in Mr. Goddard's garden at Donard. 



The monument is a slab of granite, 7 feet 6 inches above ground. It is 

 comparatively narrow below, but broadens out fan-wise to a width of 6 feet 

 on the north and south faces. The thickness is 2 feet 2 inches. The stone 

 has had pieces broken from it, seemingly in comparatively recent times, to 

 judge from the appearance of the fractures ; one block, which possibly once 



