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A Celebration of SligoFirst Essays for Sligo Field Club

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OGAM STONES IN SUGOAND THEIR CONTEXT

Catherine SwiftDept. of History, NUl Maynooth

ogam stones, Church Island in Lough Gill and anodd ogam-Iike addition to a cross-in-circle on apillarstone at Kilturra, were re-considered. InMay 2002, Pat O.Brien of Sligo Field Oub drewattention to O'Rorke's citation of a nineteenth_cenhIry tradition that ogam characters were saidto exist on the buried end of the pillarstoneknown as Clogh an Easpuig on the ecclesiasticalsite at Killeran, though O'Rorke gives Kilellin,Ballydawley, just north of Ballygawley village,Co. Sligo (O'Rorke II, 247).

Timoney told m{' of the Corkagh Beg stones inMay 2002 after which I visited the stones in thecompany of Dr, Colman Etchingham of NUlMaynooth and Timoney was kind enough tosend me his records of the stones. In thefollowing paper, the discussion of the CorkaghBeg and Church Island stones draws e)(tensiveiyon TImoney's accumulated research fileincluding e)(changes of letters with Siobh.in deh6ir of the Royal Society of Antiquaries ofIreland and Professor Proinseas Ni Chathain ofUniversity College, Dublin. My owncontribution is to place these monuments withinthe conte)(t of other ogam stones, both thenational corpus in general and more specificallythose from north Connacht. A list of the northConnacht stones is given in the appendix.

THE OCAM ALPHABET

The Ogam alphabet was the invention of anIrishman at some point during the period of theRoman Empire. It was developed by somebodyacquainted with the Latin alphabt-t and wasdesigned to represent the sounds that were thencurrent in Irish. Our earliest records of thisalphabt't are to be found on stones, generally 1mto 2m in length with Ogam letters beinginscribed along the cdges of the monuments. Onlinguistic criteria, these stones arc dated toappro)(imatdy the fifth to mid-seventh centuryA.D.On the stones. the alphabet consisted of

ABSTRACT: Fieldwork by two members of SligoField Club has led to the identification of twoogam stones at Corkagh Beg, the first so faridentified with certainty in Co. Sligo. This paperdiscusses these new discoveries in the light of theogam stones from north Connacht.

In the current national catalogue of Irish ogamstones (Macalister 1945) there are no ogam stoneslisted for County Sligo. In October 1976,however, Jack Flynn, the newly appointed ChiefAgriculture Officer for Sligo and member ofSligo Field Club, learned from Micheal Noone ofBeltra, Instructor in Agriculture, of the existenceof a cross-marked pillar' on a ringfort on SeamusGilligan's land at Corkagh Beg in the parish ofTempleboy, some miles west of BalJisodare, Co.Sligo. Together they examined the stones andaccepted the cross pillar as a genuine monument.Soon afterwards Flynn brought archaeologistand member of Sligo Field Club Martin A.TImoney to the site. TImoney remarked in hisnotebook entry for that site visit on 16th October1976 that one of the long prostrate pillarstoneshad five notches on it, but ogam was notsuggested, at least not in the notebook, Thesecond stone did not even get a mention,Nagging doubts led to some return visits but itwas not until 5th June 1983 that a small group ofSligo Field Club members, TImoney, Flynn, Dt'sSmith, Aodhan O'Higgins and Brian6 Suilleabhain, properly cleared the stones to aget.,a good look at them, to do rubbings and tophotograph them. The sandstone pillarstoneS('cmcd to have ten It.1ters, seven, two and one.Brian 6 Suilleabhain suggested that one wordSl?t'med to be the word iCNAS and, based on this,Aodh.in O'Higgins argued that it might be areference to the father of St Patrick's disciple,Bron mac JOlt' otherwise known as Bishop Branof Kilaspugbrone, The S('Cond ogam stone atCorkagh Beg was again rcjf.'cted at this stage asbeing dubious, Research by Timoney Continuedfor some years, with encouragcffient including asite visit by Colm Lankford. Other possible Sligo

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logical. therefore, that there is some gap in timebetween the invention of the alphabet and itsappearance on the stones.The alphabet is used on the stones to carve

personal names which invariably are in thegenitive case, i.t!., belonging to person X. Whatexactly belonged to the individuill is not alwaysspecified; there is one category of approximatelytwenty inscriptions which begin with theword ANM 'name belonging to X', Anotherinscription, written in the Latin alphabet ratherthan Ogam but apparently belonging to the sameperiod, begins LIE or 'stone belonging to X'(McManus 1991. 51), In the cases where nopossession is specified, the two alternativesgenerally canvassed are burial marker ormemorial of X or, conceivably, land or territorybelonging to X (Plummer 1923).After the stones ceased to be produced.

medieval Irishmen continued to be interested inthe Ogam alphabet and further modificationswere introduced over time. Versions of thealphabet occur in ninth-century Irishmanuscripts now in Berne and in Saint Gall,Switzerland, as well as in the twelfth-centuryBook of Leinster and in the later grammaticaltracts In Lebor Ogaim, 'The Book of Ogaro', andAuraicept na ntct!s, 'The Scholar's Primer', Inthese various manuscript sources, the alphabetsall vary, with a number of different symbolsbeing used and different meanings attached tothe same symbols. Exactly why medievalIrishmen continued to modify the Ogamalphabet in this way is not absolutely clear butthe existence of these many later medievalversions explains why modern scholarship is notconsistent in its rendition of the alphabet.(Compare for example, the version ofthe alphabets published in the DingleArchaeological Survey (Cuppage 1986, 248) withthat published for the neighbouring barony ofIveragh (O'Sullivan &: Sheehan 1996, 240». Fromthe point of view of archaeologists, however. theimportant thing to note is that these manuscriptversions of ogam symbols all differ in certain keyrespects from the ogam alphabet found on thestones.

Because stone is an inorganic substance, wecannot date it with any of the newly developedscientific dating techniques such as radiocarbondating or dendrochronology. Thus the onlydates which archaeology can provide for ogamstones is through excavating and dating thecontext in which they are found. The majority ofogam stones, however, were found in the

THE DATING OF OGAM STONES

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is not the original Ogam alphabet which we haveon the stones but a modification of it. Twosymbols do not appear to be used on the stones(McManus 1986, 25): one stroke to the left andfour diagonal strokes crossing the edge.'Looking at the layout of the alphabet, it seemsclear that these letters must once have existedfor if the inventor was creating symbols for amere 18 letters, he would surely not have hadsymbols of one, two and five diagonal strokeswhilst skipping the 4-stroke symbol and.possibly. the 3-stroke figure. In addition. thereare additional letters. known as forfrda. which donot fit into the scheme of 4 groups of 5, and theseforfeda had been introduced before the creation ofour earliest stones.' In the period of the stonecarvings. the most common forfrda consisted oftwo diagonal strokes cutting the edge >< whichcan be either a consonant X (approximately 14examples) or a vowel (11 examples, confined toCork and Kerry) (McManus 1991, 79). It seems

nineteen letters as illustrated in figure 1. Layingthe alphabet out in this fashion, makes it fairlyclear that the original inventor of the Ogamalphabet produced 4 groups of 5 letters: one tofive strokes to the right of the edge, one to fivestrokes to the left, one to five diagonal strokescrosc;ing the edge and one to five strokes in thecentre. It is important to stress. however, that it

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ninett'('nth century long before the advent ofscientific archaeology. Furthennore, when theywere found, the vast bulk of the stones werediscovered in secondary contexts, where theyhad been used. as building stones and lintels,built into souterrains, "ringforts, churches,outhouses and other structures. Of the stoneswhich may have been in their original contextwhen found, seven were found on a sandy knolLknown as emMhic Uileain.. on the south shore ofSmerwick harbour. A sandstorm in the lateeighteenth century exposed the stones, inaddition to a further possible ogam fragment, across-inscribt>d stone, a number of graves andquantities of bone. The ogams appear to havebeen sct out in a rough semi-circle on top of themound and there were the ruins of severalhouses apparently between the mounds and thesea (Cuppage 1986, 250-251). Another stone,which commemorates a priest, was found at theelevated gap between Mount Brandon andMasatiompan, on the Dingle peninsula,apparently buried upright in peat (Macalister1945,140-141). Both of these discoveries appearto imply that the stones were erected by a societywhich had some knowledge of Christianity andthis suggestion is strongly supported by theoverall distribution of ogam stones. FionnbarrMoore has shown that the largest category arethe one hundred and thirty three stones whichcome from sixty-five ecclesiastical sites; these canbe compared with the one hundred and thirtyogam stones built into forty-five souterrains,fourteen ogams from mounds or smallenclosures, seven from stone rows and threefrom ringforts (Moore 1998, 23). There are also anumber of ogam stones which are carved withcrosses where the crosses appear conlemporarywith the carving of the inscription (Swift 2001).Other stones appear to belong to an earlier

burial ritual, most particularly the stone which islocated at Island, in Co. Mayo, which currentlyslands on a low, apparently artificial mound.This may be an Iron Age burial mound or barrowof the type found at Carro'Njames in Co. Mayo,Grannagh in Co. Galway, or Rathdooney Beg in

~ Co. Sligo (Raftery 1994, 189; Mount 1998, 21). Arecent excavation of a similar barrow onKiltullagh hill on the Roscommon-Mayo border,has produced two centrally located inhumationswith radiocarbon dates, to two standarddeviations, from AD. 410 to 675. No standingstone was found on the Kiltullagh barrowalthough the excavators concurred with thesuggestion, made originally by H.T. Knox in1913, that a ncar-by standing stone may oncehave been located on top of the barrow(Robinson rl at. 2000). An earlier excavation,

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around the current location of the standingstone, found an extended inhumation.. runningcast-west from the base of the stone with thehead to the west (McConnick rt ai, 1995). Thisinhumation produced a carbon date, to twostandard deviations, of A.D. 406-532.The Kiltullagh evidence implies that Iron Age

ring-barrows may have continued 10 be used forinhumations as late as the seventh century AD.and that Ihey were most probably still in use inthe period following the adoption ofChristianity. If the inhumation excavated byMcConnick was intentionally located at the footof the standing stone, this implies that burialsmarked by standing stones and located some 4metres away from a ring barrow, could belong tothe fifth ct'ntury AD.' Thus it is possible that thestanding stone, near-by ring barrow and fifth-sixth century inhumations at Kiltullagh. providea context for the barrow at Island, which has astanding stone, carved with an ogam inscription..currently lying on ils sudact'.The occurrence of Iron Age and Christian

burials on the one site has been found in theexcavations at Ballymacaward, in the parish ofKilbarron, in Co. Donegal. Here the primarymonument was a cairn.. possibly of Bronze Agedate, which was subsequently augmented by alevel layer of stones, charcoal and cremaledbone. This extension appears to date to thesecond or first century B.C. Five slab-linedgraves were then inserted into the monument inthe fifth century A.D. whilst other inhumations,in unprotected graves, belonged 10 the seventhcentury A.D. (O'Brien 2000, 26-27). TheseS('venth-eentury graves appear to be Christianfor they lay orientated in an cast-west directionwith their heads to the west. No grave goodswere found and at least one appears 10 have beenburied in a shroud (Richards 1999, 174-176).Sligo, too, has produced a cemetery containing

burials of both Iron Age and Christian type,within a promontory fort at Knoxspark inBallysadare parish. Here two cairns, between3m and 5m diameter, contained cremationburials and were surrounded by burials in pits.Th('$(' included some 51 extended inhumations,three crouched and three flexed burials. In mostcases, the heads were orientated 10 the west orsouth-west. One double burial, of two adultmales, apparently buried at the same time,appears to date to between the eighth and tenthrenturies AD. (Mount 1995, 78-79).Overall, then, the archaeological evidence

implies that ogam stones belong to the period ofconversion when Christian burial rituals werebeing practised by some people in Ireland butwhere they had not bt-en accepted by all (Swift

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1997, 27-48). Excavation of cemeteries in thenorth-west suggest that Iron Age burial sitescontinued to be used by the Christian populationin some instances and this period of overlapwould seem to provide the most useful contextin which to place the erection of ogam stones.More specific archaeological dating will onlycome about when an ogam stone is excavated inits original context. In its absence, the onlymethod of dating left is to analyse the languagefound in the inscriptions. Irish is particularlywell suited to this type of analysis in that itchanges over time and these changes can be usedto differentiate earlier versus later inscriptions.Without going into excessive detail, the three

basic linguistic divisions of the ogam corpus areentitled: pre-apocope, pre-syncope, and post-syncope (Fig. 2). Apocope is the term for the lossof the final syllable of words which is the firstmajor development which we see on the stones.McManus dates its onset 10 the beginning of thesixth century although it takes some time to beaccepted by all carvers. In general however, pre-

no trace of that middle syllable are termed poSI-syncope and this is the type of Irish which isrevealed in the earliest Irish documents of theseventh century. Thus, in summary, pre-apocopeinscriptions tend to belong to the fifth century;pre-syncope inscriptions are likely to be sixthcentury and post-syncope inscriptions belong tothe very late sixth century or early seventhcentury (McManus 1991, 92-7; Swift 1997, 47-69).This is an abbreviated version of a more complexprocess and there are complications. There issome evidence, for example, that the fifth-century style was seen as the convention whichshould always be used on the stones, even whenthe language had moved on and developed laterforms. The dating of apocope and syncopeinvolves juggling probabilities rather thanprecise facts and as a method, linguistic analysiscannot provide precise dates for specific stones.In the absence of archaeological data, however,this type of relative linguistic categorisationprovides us with the best dating methodcurrently available.

F"iI.2. The Ogam lnguislic Slb-phases

THE CORKAGH BEG OGAM STONES

F"iI.3, Cor1la~ Beg Ogam Stone No.l,!rom ltle narrow 1lfId.

Photo: Martin A Tmoney

The site of Corkagh Beg consists of an area ofraised ground, possibly a raised ringfott, and astanding cross-pillar on which a Latin-style crossis carved on the western face, in the lowersection of the pillar. Some fifty metres to the eastare three prostrate stones which are currentlyembedded in the topsoil and two of these areinscribed with ogam inscriptions.Slone 1 (figs. 3 - 6) is a rectangular stone,

squared off at one end and tapering somewhat atthe other. It is 1.93m in length, O.43mwide at thesquared off end and O.32mat the other end. Atthe moment approximately 0.12m of the stone'sdepth is exposed but its current position is notoriginal. The inscription is found on the westernface, on the upper edge of the slone, beginningO.65mfrom the narrower end.

Post-syncope

COLOMANN

Pre-syncope

COLOMAGNI

Pre-apocope

apocope stones belong to the fifth century. Thesecond big development is syncope which is theloss of a middle syllable in thrt.>e-syllablewords,a feature which begins around the middle of thesixth century and spreads during the second halfof the sixth rentury. Inscriptions where there is

COLMAN

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The first four letters of the inscription are veryclt'ar and reading up the stone, from narrow towide end, they read as follows:

M (a long diagonal stroke running across theline of the edge)

A (a tear.-drop shapt.-d notch on the uppt'redge)

C (four strokes running down the westernface)(four clear notches along the edge with aprobable fifth which has been damaged byflaking stone).

Separatt'd by a small gap from th~ letters aretwo strokes running down the western face,shortened at the lower end by the missing flake.If complete, this would be a 0; if strokes were

Fig. 4. ~ Beg Ogam Stone No. 1, !rom !he broad encl.Prolo: Marm A. Trnoney

missing. it could be a T, C or Q. The strokes arevery worn and in 2002 we could only set? twodefinite examples. This was also the view at thetime the stone waS raiSlo'din 1983, as suggestedby photographs and rubbings in Timoney'sresearch file. In Timoney's notebook of June1983, however, he recorded a four.stroke letter C.

Fig,S. The central par101 the inscnplian on Corka'1l Beg OgamStone No. 1. PhoIo: Mar1inA. Tmoney

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F.g, 6. The C8I1tra1part of !he nsc~ on Corkaljl BegOgam Stone NO.1. Photo: Martin A. Trnoney.

TImoney (pers. comm.) says that none of thepeople present in 1983 had any properknowledge of ogam so contradictions betweenreadings were inevitable; their next task afterbeing certain that there was ogam at CorkaghBeg was to find someone who knew ogam andcould read the inscription properly.The section of the stone, from the letter M to

the D/C was approximately 0.20 m.long. Therewas then a gap of approximately a.35m followedby a single faint vowel notch (A) and two strokesrunning up from the edge, a putative L. Againthese strokes were 100 shallow and worn to bepositive about their identification. We sawnothing more in our visit of May 2002 and itappears that nothing more was visible at the timeof the 1983 rubbing in the research file whichamalgamated these two letters (AL) into a three-stroke letter V. TImoney's 1983 nOIl'book, incontrast, records these letters as a single centralstroke Ieller A, followed by a four-stroke letter S.The 1983 notebook reading also depicts a gapfollowed by a two diagonal stroke letter G andwhat they read as a single stroke to the left.Neither of these letters were seen by ourselves in2002 nor in the 1983 rubbing. The single stroketo the left appears particularly doubtful as noexample of this symbol is known on the stones(5(."e abov~) and it seems more likely that, if thisstroke exists, it is a remnant of a two, three, fouror five stroke symbol to the left (0, T, C or Q).Finally, both the 1983 rubbing and Timoney'snotebook records a further sequence of fivevowel strokes (- I) at the top of the stone and aphotograph was taken of chalk marks depictingthis letter at the time.We thus have three readings:

1983 notebook: MACI C AS.....G.... I1983 rubbing: MACl D V....I2002 reading: MACl D AL...

It has to be said that the imtial word MACl isquill." clear and has been read as such byour!it'lves, by the earlier investigators and byProfessor Pr6inscas Ni Chathiiin of the

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Department of Old Irish (who was shownunchalked photographs by Milrtin A. Timoneyfrom 1983). The other strokes are all debatableand the rubbing of Ihe stone from 19B3has nolclarified matters. Because of the attractiveness ofthe possible association with Bishop Bran, it isworth noting that no reader of the slone hasfound clear evidence in favour of ICNAS. The1983 notebook reading comes closesl but notonly does it show no sign of the N; its reading ofboth the C and the AS requires us to insertstrokes which were not visible to others whohave examined the stone.

should therefore be from what is now thenorthern end.) It consisls of seven clear strokesrunning down the eastern face; the exact lengthof these was difficult to determine owing to apronounced horizontal crack, lern to 2ern, whichcut through them. The Sligo Field Club felt theseletters were dubious while in 2002, we read themas a possible two-stroke letter 0, followed by afive stroke leiter Q. We also thought we coulddetect a single possible vowel stroke with theresultant reading being A...DQ. Removinglichen from the rest of the face we came acrossother possible individual strokes along its Jt:'ngthbut nothing which was indisputably a letter.

Fig. 7. Corkagl Beg Ogam Slone No, 2. PhoIo Martin A..TlITIOOeY,

The IIlSCliplion on Cotkagh Beq Ogam Stone No.2.Pholo: MartinA. TlITIOI1ey.

The only dating evidence for either of thesestones is the linguistic analysis of the wordMACI on the first stone. This is the genitive caseof the word for 'son', the word which laterbecame Old Irish maicc. In its earliest possibleform, the word was spelt MAQ(Q)I with a letterQ but during the early period of erection of ogamslones, the sound Q Ik'"' I fell together wilh thesound C Ikl in Irish so that both symbols couldbe used to designate the one sound. Thisdevelopment takes place prior to the onset ofapocope and is thought to belong to the later

fifth century Oackson 1953, 139-143;Wright & Jackson 1968, 299; McManus1991,77; Swift 1997, 54--55). This meansthat the Corkagh Beg stone must,therefore, post-dale this development.At first sight, the existence of the final

I in MACl suggests that the Corkagh Begogam stone can be closely dated.belonging to the period after the fallingtogether of Q and C and prior to theonset of apocope when the I would havebeen lost. Unfortunately this is nolnecessarily the case. This word for 'son'is the most common word in the entireogam corpus and perhaps, because ofthis, carvers of ogam inscriptions oftenkeep the older spelling even where thecestof the inscription shows that apocopehas taken place in the spoken language(McManus 1991, 81-83). This practicehad largely died out by the time of thepost-syncope inscriptions of the seventhcentury when MAC[ had generallybecome MAC or MAQ.' On the otherhand, if the final letter of the inscriptionis I as suggested by the 1983 notebook,the 1983 rubbing in the research file andthe photographs taken in the 1980s, thiswould appear to imply that whatever thesecond name was, it too shows pre-apocope spelling. Overall, therefore, theFig,8.

STONE 2 (fig. 7 - 8), lying immediately to theeast of stone 1, is approximately l.90m in length.It is O.3Omwide at its northern end and someO.28mat the southern end. The stone is not in anoriginal position. A small piece, roughly O.08mby O.05m, is missing from the southern end. Theonly clear pilrt of the inscription is found on theeastern edge, O.60m from the southern end andapproximately 1m from the north. (If theinscription follows the normal arrangement ofogam stones, it should be running from thebottom of the stone and counter-clockwisearound the top as it faces the reader; the reading

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Corkagh Beg MACI stone seems to belong to thelater fifth century or the sixth century and ismore likely to have been erected in the earlierpart of that time-scale.From its position on the stone, it appears that

the MACI stands at the beginning of theinscription. This implies that in this case theword 'mac' is not functioning here as the wordfor son but as the beginning of a personal name.There is a category of Irish personal nameswhich are compounds: the first word being macand the second being a divine name, the name ofa tree or a word associated with trade. In thesenames, mac probably had the meaning ofdevotee or the like. Examples are names such asMac-frct" 'devotee of the divinity Ere', Mac-Cui/inn 'devotee of the holly tree' or Mac-Tdil'devotee of the adze' (McManus 1991, 108-109).II seems probable that the Corkagh Beginscription commemorates a name such as this.

OTHER NORTH CONNACHT OGAM STONES

The Corkagh Beg ogam stones belong to asmall group of ogam stones which is isolatedfrom the main bulk of ogam stones in the south-west of In>land in the counties of Cork, Kerryand Waterford (Fig. 9). This north Connachtgroup are found in Mayo (nine possibleexamples of which two seem dubious), Leitrim(one example) and Roscommon (threeexamples), as well Sligo (two Corkagh Begstones and a doubtful example from OmrchIsland; S('E' catalogue entry below). Of these,three have clear ecclesiastical associations whiletwo other possible candidates also haveecclesiastical connections: Cloonmorris inLeitrim, found on a church site; Kilmannin. builtinto a church building and Kilgarvan,. also foundon a church site. One of the dubious Mayoexamples, Dooghmakeon. is said to be carvedalong the edge of a standing stone bearing alarge Maltese cross on the flat face. Havingexamined the stone, however, 1 could find notraces of the inscription and Macalister indicatesthat he was doubtful about it. The Church Islandstone is built inlo the inside of the doorway of aruined medieval church.Four of fhese ogam stones have been found as

isolated field monuments while a fifth, atDrummin in Co. Roscommon. is part of a twostone-row. Two, at Rathcroghan, were built intoa dry-stone entranceway to the cave of Cruachanand a third., at Rushecns East, was found lyingon a dwarf wall, surrounding a holy well. One,discussed already above, at Island in Bekanparish, now lies prostrate on ••••.hat appears to bean Iron Age barrow.

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There are two distinct sizes of ogam stonesinvolved: nine are 2m or smaller whilst twoothers are 2.80m and 3.30m in height,respectively. It is probably significant that theselarger stones are both found as isolated fieldmonuments. They may represent re-usedprehistoric standing stones or, perhaps, stoneswhich had a different function from the smallerexamples.Judging by the inscriptions, the ogams of this

north Connacht group were erectro throughoutthe period these stone monuments were beingproduced. Five inscriptions are pre-apocope orprobably fifth-century in date, including theIsland stone on its barrow, the new stone fromthe medieval church at Kilgarvan,. Rusheens Eastand the two inscriptions from the cave atRathcroghan. A sixth. from Drummin in Co.Roscommon. looks to be late fifth century in thatit has lost what would have been the finalSrCUNOVATOS > CUNOVATO).; this is adevelopment which occurs immediately prior tothe onset of apocope (McManus 1991, 93, 176).The site of Tullaghaun has produced what looksto be a defective pre-apocope inscription; it nowreads QASIGN(IJ MAQ... Although there is notrace of the final r of QASIGNI today, there is agap of the right size and it seems likely that thisis also a pre-apocope inscription. These seveninscriptions of early type are concentrated in thesouth~eastern sub-group amongst the northConnacht stones, from the neighbouringbaronies of Costello, Co. Mayo, and Castlereagh,Co. Roscommon. The exception is Kilgarvan.immediately to the east of 8allina, Co. Mayo.The stone from Ooonmorris, in Leitrim may

belong to the intermediate pre-syncope phase(approximately sixth century) for it still has themedial vowel U in QENUVEN. Careful study ofthe stone by Mac Neill at the time of itsdiscovery, however, makes it clear that the edgeof the stone had flaked away immediately belowthe N (Mac Neilll909a, 134) so it is possible thatthe original inscription had more letters,indicating a pre-apocope origin. In favour of thissuggestion is the fact that the initial clement inthe name QENU - correctly uses Q rather thanthe later C which replaced it. The modem Irishequivalent is ceanll 'head' but it is known that itoriginally would havE' been spt'lt -qm.paralleling the ]'-Celtic penn in Welsh (McManus1991, 121). On the other hand, the medial Ureflects the gradual weakening of this soundprior to its loss in syncope (it would originallyhave been an A) and this might suggest a slightlylater date (McManus 1991, 117-118).The stone from Kilmannin has both

LUGADDON and LUGUDEC with no final

ending. Both words are post-apocope but bothretain their medial vowel, implying a pre-syncope date. In fact, LUGADDON with itsmedial A never lost its medial vowel. bL'ComingLugaed in the nominative and Lugedon in thegenitive, so this particular word is not useful fordating purposes (McManus 1991,117). Given itsassociation with the pre-syncope LUGUDEC,however, it seems likely that this inscriptionbelongs to the sixth century.A third stone from Aghaleague, with the word

MAQ-ACfO has two examples of the post-apocope spelling MAQ. The associated wordAero is likely to be a u-stem noun with agenitive ending in a long '0'; in the case of wordsending in a long '0', the final '0' was not lost inthe process of apocope (McManus 1991, 116). Onthe whole, it seems likely that this stone is latersixth or early seventh century in date.There are two other late stones (late sixth or

early seventh-eentury), each enigmatic in theirown way. Corrower has an inscription ..QCERAN on the left hand side while the secondpart of the inscription, on the right-hand sidereadsAVI ATHECETAIMlN. This last is a phrasewhich has been translated tentatively by PatrickSims-Williams as 'descendant of the originalrent-payers'. (Sims-Williams 1992, SO) and hewould date this inscription to the very end of theogam period, possibly as late as A.D. 700. Thesecond late stone is the famous stone fromBreastagh, in the parish of Templemurry. Thistoo has two inscriptions but only the second iscomprehensible. It reads MAQ CORRBRI MAQAMMLLO.:IT.. Here, in addition to theshortened form MAQ, the medial vowel inCORRBRI has been dropped making this a clearexample of a post-syncope inscription.Of these later stones, only the Kilmannin

inscription belongs to the south-eastem sub-group in east Mayo and Roscommon. The otherscome from three parishes in northern Mayo:Lackan, Templemurray and Attymass while thesomewhat ambiguous stone at Cloonmorrisfonns an outlier in the parish of Mohill in southLeitrim. It is also worth noting that these laterstones are the larger of these north Connachtstones, being 2m (Aghaleague), 2.BOm high(Corrower) and 330m high (Breastagh)respectively. The exception here again is theC1oonmorris stone which, as discus.o;edabove, isnot definitely a post-apocope inscription. It ispossible that these later inscriptions were thusdeliberately designed to have a moremonumental function than the earlier stones;that they had less of an individual grave-markerand more of a territorial boundary function. Thisseems particularly plausible in the case of the

A CU I'BI{,HIO'i 01 SLICO

Breastagh stone for Eoin Mac Neill hassuggested that the final name is an earlierversion of the personal name Amlongaid. thename used of the ruling dynasty of this area inthe later seventh century, who gave their name tothe barony of TIrawley (Mac Neill 1909, 332).In terms of fonnulae used, six of the north

Connacht inscriptions use the X MAQ[I) Yfonnula or 'belonging to X son of Y'. This is themost common formula on ogam ~tones,occurring on approximately sixty-oneinscriptions in Macalister's corpus. As in thenational corpus of ogam stones as a whole, thisformula is used in inscriptions of all periodsfrom the north Connacht area.There are also two north Connacht examples of

single names occurring on their own: OOTAGNIin Kilgarvan and CUNOVATO in Drummin.There are some 29 examples of these single-nameinscriptions in the national corpus and theirdating appears confined. to the period beforesyncope. In other words, this fashion of singlenames without mentioning the father or otherancestors is a feature of the fifth and sixth-century stones. In terms of location. the twostones with this fonnula in north Connacht comefrom an early ecclesiastical site and from a two-stone row.A third formula occurs at Island where the

inscription reads X AVI Y with aui being theearlier form of the word Ui or descendant, aword which is used to describe the rulingdynasty (So, for example, you have the Vi Neillkings of Tara, descendants of Niall Noigiallachor Niall of the Nine Hostages). This is one of therarer ogam fonnulae, occurring only twelvetimes in Macalister's corpus and, like the singlenames, it appears to belong to the earlier periodof ogam-stone production (McManus 1991, 52,79-80). The stone from the Island barrow,therefore, which reads CUN ALEGI AVIQUNACANOS, commemorates a member of alocal ruling dynasty in the fifth century.There is no unambiguous example of a fourth

fonnula involving the use of the word MUCOI,later moceu, a word which has often beentranslated as tribe or community (Mac Neill1907; Charles-Edwards 2000, 96-100). It ispossible, however, that the unfinished wordMU.... on one of the stones from Rathcroghanand the odd MO...CQU from Kilmannin mayhave originally represented forms of this word.Finally, one should note that there are two,

possibly three, examples of the Mac- names inthe north Connacht group, apart from theprobable example at Corkagh Beg. Of the twoclear examples, the first is Aghaleague where theinitial name is MAQ-ACTO while the St'Cond,at

A CHFRRATION or sueo

part of the stone standing above ground levelmay only have been 103m high. Gi\'en theextremely patchy evidence for stone nO.2, wecannot tell how much of it was buried but thesurviving letters are 1m from the base.A date of late fifth or sixth century A.D. for at

least one of the Corkagh Beg stones coincideswith that of the majority of the north Connachtstoncs. Five of these are definitely pre-apocopeor fifth-ecntury in date; two more are probablypre-apocope and one is possibly so. These earlystones tend to be found in the south-eastern sub-group of north Connacht stones, in east Mayoand Roscommon while a further possibleexample was located at Cloonmorris in MohiIJ.In addition, at least one pre-apocope stone isfound near Ballina. This last stone, on thenorthern edge of the distribution of earlier, pre-apocope ogams from Connacht, is found on anecclesiastical site which makes the association ofthe Corkagh Beg stones with a cross-carvedpillar more significant. On the basis of ourinformation to date, it is possible to speculatethat Kilgarvan and Corkagh Beg may have beenerected by Christian communities of the laterfifth or sixth centuries A.D. Given the clearevidence that burial places such asBaJlymacaward and Knoxspark continued in usefrom the prehistoric into the Christian period,however, this cannot be stated conclusively for itis possible that these sites only acquiredChristian significance after the ogam stones wereerected.Of the early stones in the east Mayo and

Roscommon group, the majority are found eitherin re-used contexts or as isolated fieldmonuments but the stone from Island is foundon what appears, from field survey, to be aprehistoric barrow. Its inscription makes it clearthat it commemorated a man belonging to thelocal ruling dynasty. A second early inscription,from Drummin, appears on a two-stone row andthis is a type of monument which is also foundwith inscriptions of early date at Rathglass inCarlow and Cotts, in Co. Wexford. Such two-stone rows may. therefore, also be Iron Agemonuments on occasion although it is normallythought that stone rows are a Bronze Agephenomenon (0 Nuallain 1988). Given theseassociations with monuments of prehistoricstyle, there is no strong evidence to associate themajority of the early east Mayo and Roscommonogams with Christianity. On the other hand, therather later inscription from Kilmannin,belonging to the transitional pre-syncope phase,was found built into a chuKh while the possiblepre-apocope stone from Ooonmorris, in southLeitrim, was found in a churchyard. This might

Breastagh, is MAQ-CORRBRI. The third and lessc!ear.cut example is perhaps the most interestingin that it appears to be (MA)Q CERAN 'devoteeof Garan' from the site of Corrower in Attymass.It seems probable that Ihis is a reference to StGaran of Clorunamoise for Bishop Tirechan.writing of early churches in norlh Connacht inthe later seventh century A.D., makes it clear thatthe community of Clonmarnoise held land insouth Sligo and surrounding areas at that period(Bieler 1979, 143). All three of these MAQ(lrnames, unlike the Corkagh Beg example, showthe post.apocope spelling MAQ rather than theearlier MACI.

CONCLUSIONS

The Corkagh Beg stones represent animportant addition to the national corpus of Irishogams for up until now, only the extremelydoubtful example of Church Island had beenfound in Sligo. (The other two possibilities, fromKiltufTa and Killeran are even less convincing.)Corkagh Beg's location, in the parish ofTempleboy, north of Skreen church, representsan easterly extension of the small group of stonesalready known from the hinterland of the Mayestuary. The cI05eproximity of the Corkagh Begstones with a cross-<arved pillar also coincideswith the ecclesiastical associations of three northConnacht slones: from Kilgarvan near Ballinaand (further south) from Cloonmorris andKilmannin churches.Examination of the Corkagh Beg stones

produced only one readable word: MACIalthough there are trares of other letters to beseen. The position of MACI at the beginning ofthe inscription makes it likely that here this wordis being used in the sense of devotee rather thanson but in the absence of the rest of theinscription, we cannot be sure of what or ofwhom the dead man was a devotee. The spellingof the word implies that this stone was carved inthe later fifth or sixth centuries A.D.In terms of size, the Corkagh Beg stoncs are on

the large size for north Connacht stont'S, beingbetween 1.9Om and 1.93m in height. This issimilar to the stone at Tullaghaun in the parish ofAnnagh b~t contrasts with the seven of the northConnacht stones which are under 1.50m inheight. The tallest of these north Connachtexamples are Breastagh at 3030m high andCorrower at 2.80m. It must be remembered ofCourse, that the Corkagh Beg stones wouldoriginally have been standing upright and thusthey would have appeared somewhat shorter. Inthe case of the MACI stone where the inscriptionbegins some O.6mfrom the base of the stone, the

135

A CFU.BR'\fION or SliGO

•

Fig. 9. Confirmed 0ljaITISites II Ireland

om

50

imply that the custom of erecting ogam stoneswas introduced into the Castiereagh/Costclioarea when the prevailing burial mode was stiUanon-Christian onc and it was only subsequentlythat ogam stones began to be eceded on whatbecame Christian sites. One could speculate,therefore, thai within the broad time-frameof late fifth to sixth centuries, theCastlereagh/Costello stones are slightly earlierthan the pre-apocope stones further north at

Kilgarvan and Corkagh Beg.As already mentioned, the latest stones from

north Cannacht appear to be taller than theaverage and may have had a different functionfrom the earlier inscriptions. It is noteworthythat in at least two cases, at Corrower andBrea~tagh. there are difficulties in reading partsof the inscription and that they do not appear touse the stock formulae which are the norm in thenational corpus as a whole. One of the stones, at

Breastagh. may have an early version of thename Amlongaid, the name of the ruling dynastywhich gave its name to the barony of lirawleyand this would support the theory iliat, in thiscase, we are looking at a stone which functionedas a territorial marker rather than as a simplememorial of a burial.It must be said iliat the foregoing analysis is

based entirely on the north Connacht stones asthey are currently known. The discovery of theCorkagh Beg stones, like Gerry Cribbin's recentdiscovery of the stone from Kilgarvan. makes itclear that there is every possibility that moreogam stones may be found in north Connacht inthe future. Some may be found throughdevelopment whilst others, as in these two cases,will be found lhrough local fieldwork. Thenational corpus of ogam stones was createdthrough the enthusiasm and interest of thosewho found the stones on their own land andcontacted the authorities; it is still the case thatthis is the most likely method by which ourknowledge of ogam stones and their function inearly Irish society will grow. In addition, it iscrudal that, when such discm-'eries are made,subsequent interpretations concentrate on thelocal context in which the stones are found. Nonational movement or cultural change happensin the same way and at the same timethroughout the country. Dealing witharchaeological material on a national level alonemeans that inevitably one is constructinggeneralisations about our archaeological pastand it is nlXeSSary that we move beyond this tocreate local histories for every part of thecountry. It is in this context that I offer ilieforegoing paper as my contribution to thevaluable work of the Sligo Field Gub.

APPENDIX

Ogam StO'les in LeitTim, Mayo, RoscommO'Iand Sligo

Cloonmorris, parish of Mohill, Co. Leitrim;Le.037:004; Grid Ref. 20832.28526. Foundmarking a modem grave in front of a ruinedmedieval church. It is approximately O.85mlong. On the right-hand angle it reads (from thetop down) as QENUVEN; on the left-hand atthe bottom, there is a G, followed by afracture and following T so that it now reads:G..T QENUVEN (Maca1isler 1945,No .2).

137

,\ CI-:IFRRAf lOr-.; 01 SLIGO

Island, Bekan parish, Co. Mayo; Ma.093:03801;Grid Ref. 14733.28070. Now lying on an barrow.11 is approximately 1.58m long with aninscription running from bottom left around topand down right. It reads CUNALEGI AVIQUNACANOS (MacaJister 1945, No.3).

Kilmannin, Bekan, Co. Mayo; Ma.093:1045; GridRef. 14960.28062. Found built into the wall of anold church but now in the National Museum ofIreland. Macalister gives the town land asKilmannia whereas it should be Kilmannin. It isapproximately 1.20m long with an inscription onall four sides, consisting of two pairs, eachrunning from bottom left, across top, and downthe right hand side as they face the reader. Thefirst pair reads LUGADDON MAQI LUGUDEC;the second inscription is less clear but has beenread as DDISJ MO...CQU S...EL (Macalister 1945,NO.4;McManus 1991, 65).

Rushl"l"ns East, Kilmovef', Co. Mayo; Ma.073:012; Grid Ref. 15567.29428. Found on wallsurrounding a holy well and currently standingin a field, some hundreds of metres from the •••ruins of Ki1movee church. Macalister gives thetownland as Rusheens East whereas it should beRusheens West. It is approximately 1.2Omhighwith inscription running up the left-hand side. Itreads ALATTOS MAQI BR (Macalisler 1945,No.5).

Tullaghaun, Annagh, Co. Mayo; Ma.103:022;Grid Ref. 15402.27539. Found in a field.Macalister gives the towniand as TulJaghaunwhereas it should be Ballybeg. It stands some1.95m with the inscription running up the left-hand side. It reads QASIGN[I) MAQ ..; the finalI of the first word being indicated only by a gapwith none of the vowel strokes surviving(Macalister 1945, No.6).

Corrower, Attymass, Co. Mayo; Ma.040;048;Grid Ref. 12946.31420. Found in a field. It standssome 2.8Omhigh, inscribed on both angles of thenorth-west face, each running from bottom totop. (This type of arrangement, while not thenormal one, is found elsewhere). On the left-hand side, it reads ....Q CERAN; on the righthand side, ..1AthECETAIMIN with the til beingMacalister's interpretation of an anomaloussymbol (Macalister 1945, No. 7).

Dooghmakeon, Kilgeever, Co. Mayo; Ma.095:02302; Grid Ref. 07514.27845. A slab withMaltese cross found in the sandhills, some 130min height. Macalister found it impossible to becertain that this was a real inscription; having

1111

\ (u umAllON ur Sileo

examined the stone on two occasions, I wouldagree that it is a very dubious example(Macalistcr 1945, No.8).

Aghaleague, Lackan, Co. MdYO; Ma.014:101;Grid Ref. 11323.33512. Found in a field. It stands2m high and the inscription is very battered.Maealister read it as MAQ-ACfO MAQ GAR ...(Maca lister 1945, No.9).

Breaslagh, Templemurry, Co. Mayo;Ma.015:01801; Grid Ref. 11834.33380. Foundprostrate in a field. It stands nearly 3.30m highwith the inscription carved on two angles). Theleft-hand side inscription was read by Maealisleras L(E)GG .5D LE\ \ \GESCAD with \ \ \being the three diagonal stroke symbol discussedabove. The right-hand inscription reads MAQCORRBRJ MAQ AMMLLO ..IT, with the missingletter being a second possible example of thethree diagonal stroke symbol (Macalister 1945,No. 10; McManus 1986, 22-23).

Kilgarvan, Kilgarvan parish, Mayo; Ma.04O:031;Grid Ref. 13280.31611. This is a new discoverymade by Gerry Cribbin in 2000 on the earlyecclesiastical site of Kilgarvan. The stone is1.40m in length with the inscription reading upthe left-hand side and it reads DOTAGNI (Moore2001).

Drummin, Kilcorkey parish, Roscommon;RO.015:05102; Grid Ref. 17572.28727. Standingin a field. Two stones, some 150m apart, eachstanding approximately one metre tall. On oneis an inscription reading CUNOVATO(Macalister 1945, No. 11).

Rathcroghan, parish of Ogulla, Roscommon;Ro.022:05830; Grid Ref. 17959.28312. Two in.scriptions on lintel stones, acting as entranceporch to the natural rock-fissure known as theOw~nagcat, Ihe Cave of Cruachan inGlenballythomas townland. The ends of bothare hidden so dimensions can not ~ established.One inscription. arranged in two lines, eachrunning bottom 10 top, reads VRAICCI MAQIMEDVVI; the second inscription, in a single line,reads QREGAS MU...... (Maca lister 1945, Nos.12, 13).

Church Island, parish of Calry, Co. Sligo;51.15:09601; Grid Ref. 17483.33393. This isrecorded as two or three letters by Sir SamuelFerguson in 1887 and in more detail by TadhgKilgannon in 1926 (Kilgannon 1926, 179). Thestone in question is some O.45m by O.24m by0.12m with eight vertical ogam-Iike characters

inscribed across the flat of the stone rather thanalong the edge. There is no stem line. Thisarrangement of ogam characters is also found onlater ogam stones such as Maumanorig on theDingle peninsula (Cuppage 1986, 333) but it isrelatively rare. The Church Island stone is builtinto the inner right side of an entrance door ofthe church. A cast was made of it in thenineteenth century by Col. W.G. Wood-Martin,the Sligo historian. and submi.tted to Sir R., refteSamuel, Fergusson, who pronounced it to beogam characters. A group of six Sligo Field Clubpeople, by their own admission none of themexperts in ogarn, who examined it on 28thAugust 2002 were not in the least convinced thaiit is ogam.

Corkagh Beg. parish of Templeboy, Co. Sligo;51.13:10802 & 51.13:10803; Grid Ref. 15174.33482.Found in 1976 by Jack Aynn of Sligo Field Clubbut not accepted as ogam until June 1983;detailed above.

Footnotes:1. The cross pillar is on lhe platfonn ",arthwork: while lhetwo ogham stonl"!;lie to the east. There was a bullaunstone at lhe adjacent hou!'oeto the north. but thdt hdSdisappeared since th" house was demolished beforeMarch 1984.

2. A third symbol, consisting of three diagonal strokt"Scrossing the edge, occurs only on two stont'Sand it mdYbebeing used of different sounds on each of lhem (McMdnus19%,19.23: Sims-Williams 1993,146-7).The earlier of thetwo stones is no longer e:dant while the reading of thesecond is controversial (Macalister 1945, 289; McManus1986,22.3). It is for this reason, I have left the symbol ofthree diagonal stroke!lout of the discussion.

3. In the following discussion, only the stont.~ foundwithin Ireland are amsidered. A reprt"5l'ntation, thoughtto mean the letter 'p', may occur on the stone fromValencia Island and is a\.so found on two stones fromWales (Sims--Williams 1992, 39). Other supplementarych,uacters were identified by Milcalister but Ih.,,;ehavebeen subso.'quentlyclassified as doubtful (McManus 1991,,.,4. The argument that the standing stone may originallyhave been lucated on the barrow rather than in associationwilh th••burial excavated by McConnick tt 1I1 in 1994,appears ba..ro on a) Knox's suggestion and b) thediscovery of fragmentll of sandstone in the centraldepl'bSion of the barrow. The standing stone is also ofsandstone, a stone not local 10the hilltop itsdf but found3 km away. 1hc excavaturs in 1994, some of whom alsolook part in the excavation published in 2000, did not findKnox's suggestion convincing (McConnick tt III.IW5.95).

S. The relevant stont'S are those with MACI (CUCNos.76,94,121, 137, 187, 235, 267); MAC (CUC Nus. &3,90, 127,256}:MAQ (CIIC Nos. 7, 9, 10, 55, 112. 145, 219, 220, 233,248,364,409, son).6. "indicates a form that is nut allt'St~..d but h,,~bet.-nreoonstrum-d by historical linguists.

CasheIore, Ballr!toghef, Co S1iQO, Photo: 1Xd1as. The Heritage Service,

139

Mount, Charll'S, 2002: ""The Promontory Fori,Inhumation Ccmdery and Sub-RI.."CIangularEnclosure atKnox~park,Co. Sligo" in TImont')', ed., 2002.O'llrit'n, Elizabeth, 2000: "Ballymacaward" in

£xrllVtltions 1998,ed" I. Ik>nnl>tt(2(0)), 26-27,o Nuallain, Sean. 19118:"Slone Rows in the Mlulh ofIreland", rl"OC1:'l"din~of thE' Royal Irish Academy, 88C,179-256.

O'Rorkl', TerrenCt",181l9:The History of Sligo: Town andCount!f, 2 Vuls. Dublin, James Duffy, RI..'Print,1986,Sligo,Dodd's Antiquarian Books.O'Sullivan, Anne &: Shl..••.han, John. 1996: The Iwrllgh

Prninsull/: an ArchllroiogiCAI Sul'Vf'Jl oj 50ldh KM'ry: SuirbhfSeandtfl"iochta Wilh RithQigh, Cork.J'lummci;. Olatles, 1923: "On Ihe Meaning of Ogam

Stones", Revut Critique, 40, 387.390.Rafttory,Barry, 1994, Pag"" Celtic Irdllud: the Enigma of

the Irish lrollAge, London.Richards, Julian, 1999: MI'rl tm- AIlastOrs, London.Robinson, M.E, et al., 2000: "Early Christian

Inhumations on Kiltullagh Hill, Co. ROKOmmon",fmal'lia.18,65-73.Sims-\"lilliams, Patrick,.1992:ille Additional leiters of

the Ogam AlphabE'i",C"mbridge Medin'lll Celtic Stud~, 23,29-75.

Swift, CatherinE', 1997;Ogl/'" StMes and the Ellrli~t lri~Christial'ls,Maynooth,Swift, Cath••rioe, 2001: "Irish Monum.'ntal Srulpture;

thE' Dilling EvidomceProvided by Linguistic Forms" inPllttem lind PU'1'OS( in lllsulllrArt, ed. by M. Reodkn.1pI.."taI.,Oxford, 49-60,limoney, Martin A., ed., 2002: A (([ebrlllioll oj Sligo,

Sligo.Wright, R.P. &: Jackson, Kenneth, 1968: "A Late

Inscription from Wro)(eler", The AntiqlUlrin Journll/, 48,296-300.

A t II 11l1{\TlO' (II ~II(,O

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bider, Ludwig, 1979; Thr Plltriciml Text~ in Iht- Book ofArlllllgh, Dublin.Charlt;"S-Edwards,1homas, 2000: rarly Christilln /rrlllnd,

Cambridge.Cuppage, Judith, 1986: ArchllroJogic,,1 5urltey oj the

Dingle P~lillsulll: Suirbhi Sfolllldd/Qiochlll Chora Dhull1hne,Ballyftornter.Ferguson, Sir Samuel, 1887; Oghl/'" IIl5l:riptiol'ls in

1"IIIIld. Willes lind Scollllnd. Edinburgh.Jackson, Kenneth, 1974; umgu"ge lIud History ;'1 EIIrly

Brill/in, Edinburgh.Kilgannon, Tadhg. 1926: Sligo lIud its Surroundings,

~ligo.Macalister, R.A.S., 1945:Corpus Inscriptionum lnsu/Ilrllm

Ce/liCArllm, Dublin.Mac Neill. £Oin, 1907;"Mocu,Maccu", t.riu, 3, 42-49.Mac Neill, £Oin, 1909: "Notes on the Distribution,.

Distory, Grammar and Import of the Irish OghamInscriptions-, Procredings oj 1m-ROYIII lri~ Aademy. 27C.329-370.

Mac Neill, Eoin. 1909: "Ogham Inscription atCloonmorns, County Leitrim", JOllm1l1oj tm-Raylll Societiesoj lrelllnd, 39, 132-136.McCormick, Finbar, 1995: -A Pagan-Christian

Transitional Burial at Kiltullagh", EmllllUl,13,89-98.McManus, Damien, 1986: "Ogam: Archaixing,

Orthography and tht.-Authentidty of the Manuscript Keyto the Alphabet", t.rill. 37, 1-31.McManu~, Dami("l'l,1991:AGuidr to Ogllm, Maynooth.Moore, Fionnbarr, 1998: "Munster Ogham Stones:

Siling, Conte)(t and Function" in farly Medirooll M'lIlstM':Archaeology. History lI1ldSociety, eod.by MA Monk &: J.Stwehan, Cork, 23-32.Moore, Fionnba", 2001: "Ogham Disro••.••ry in Mayo",

ArcluJroJogy 1"llInd, 15.],33.Mount, Charle!i, 1995:~KnO)(~Pillk"in f:ullVtltuJIls1994.

ed.1. 8ennl'lt (1995), 78-79.Mount, Charles, 1998: "Ritual, landscapE' and

Continuity in Prehistoric County Sligo", Archlleo1OKYIfr;'[and, 12.3, 18-21,

,\ CELFHlL\nON Of SLIGO

Some Sligo Stones

d.

a.

c.L Stone with pre-tlistoriC art !rom Mrs. Char'1tJers' School at CIoverhiJ, Co. Sligo. now in Sligo MIJS8UI1lb. EaIty CMsliaIl slab from Keetty. Co. SligO; relXl'fered from !he Dusseklol1 art!a at Germal1Y lhanks 10 !he dilligenee 01 sev&ral S\9) Fl&ld

""" .•..•.-c. Two malc.iling sectiOns ol shaft ol a major high cross exposed w;1h~ the Church ollreland ct10rch at Drumclilte. Co. Sligod. 1'he ElinOra Buller Countess of Desmond StOM., found at the Denney's Bacon Factory Sile. Quay St., SligO.