Daniel Kirkpatrick

Writing in Iron Age Ireland

Written language is something we all take for granted. Even as I write, I can’t help but see the irony in my reliance on such a medium to communicate with you the reader. By putting into words what I am thinking, I am connecting with all who read this both now and in the future. Writing was, however, not part of everyday life in ancient Ireland. The druids had a strong oral tradition, closely guarding knowledge within their circles, eschewing any form of written word. That is with the exception of the mysterious runic language of ogham.

What was Ogham?

Ogham is not a language but an ancient alphabetic script for early Irish (Primitive Irish), the oldest form of Gaelic. While some medieval source link its name to the Irish god Ogma, the god of rhetoric and eloquence, who was is reputed to have taught the other gods writing, this is unlikely.¹ Instead, its name likely derives from a Proto-Indo-European word (*h₂oǵmo) meaning “track” or “furrow,” suggesting letters carved like furrows in stone.

In design, Ogham’s 20 basic characters were arranged in four rows of 1–5 strokes (each row an aicme), read along a central stemline. In effect, each letter is a small “track” made by the chisel. These strokes represented sounds of Primitive Irish. Medieval manuscripts record letter-names (often trees or objects) for each character – for example Beith (“birch”), Coll (“hazel”), Dair (“oak”) – giving rise to the romantic notion of an “Ogham tree-alphabet”. It was derived from the Latin alphabet and belonged primarily to the period of overlap between paganism and Christianity in Ireland (mainly 4^th-7^th centuries AD). ²

The original 20-letter system was later expanded by medieval scholars with five extra signs (forfeda) to represent sounds like P, Z, X etc. However, these forfeda appear only in manuscript lists, not on early stones. In practice, Ogham inscriptions are carved vertically along an edge or face of a standing stone, often reading up the side – a uniquely three-dimensional writing style.

Purpose of Ogham

Scholars believe it was “plausibly derived from a secret finger language, or from an ancient method of counting livestock, originally on a tally-stick”.³ Fingers denoted the lines and directionality of the lines to communicate basic concepts and words known only to a few. However, because of its runic appearance, others have hypothesized that ogham had Nordic origins, derived from the futhark, though the usage of ogham inscriptions appear to be vastly different to the practices associated with this alphabet. One leading scholar summed it up explaining:

“Ogam…most probably developed in Ireland itself or in multicultural environment of southwest Britain during the later centuries of Roman rule.”⁴

Ogham’s Usage

Ogham texts are extremely formulaic. They consist almost entirely of names carved in the genitive case – essentially saying “of X” – which shows that each inscription is naming a person (or a family) rather than writing sentences. In practice, an Ogham stone usually means “(Here lies) [Name] son of [Father] son of [Tribe]…”, and so on. For example, an inscription might read KOI MAQI N-SOMETHING, indicating “(Here) of son of [so-and-so]”.

Therefore, it’ll be no surprise that ogham inscriptions have almost exclusively been found on “commemorative stones” and for “writing epitaphs”⁵ and hence can be characterized as a “monumental language”.⁶ However, there was various exceptions including the stone inscription at Rathcroghan above the Cave of the Cats which reads “Fraech” and “Son of Medb”, although the provenance of the inscription remains unclear.  

Ogham in Irish Mythology

The ancient Irish myths also refer to the practice of engraving ogham characters into oak or yew rods as “a mode of communication between individuals, serving the same purpose among them as our letters serve now”.⁷ For example, in the Irish epic The Tain, the famed warrior Cú Chulainn cuts a warning message into a piece of bark, invoking a curse as well as its message.

“Cú Chulainn went into the wood and with a single stroke he cut a prime oak sapling. Closing one eye, and using one foot and one hand, he made a hoop of it. He cut an ogam inscription on the peg of the hoop, and he put the hoop around the narrow part of the standing stone of Ard Cuillenn.”⁸

Then the invading army of Connacht discovered the hoop as they advanced north. And the warrior Fergus explains its meaning:

“’We’re waiting’, said Fergus, ‘because of this hoop. There’s an ogam message on its peg, which reads, ‘Proceed no further, unless a man among you can make a hoop like this one from one tree with one hand.”⁹

It is then handed to their druid to explain the meaning. He states that unless they can perform the feat demanded by the message, they cannot proceed any further. If they ignore the message, the druid explains, they would face the wrath of the warrior and surely die.

This is a fascinating example of ogham being used for far more than a mere epitaph. It communicated a message, embodied a curse, and was treated with solemn respect. But to understand what such a message would have looked like; we need to turn to the structure of the language itself.¹⁰

Writing Irish Ogham

The full range of words or characters within the ogham alphabet have been lost with the destruction and decay of many of the inscriptions, but scholars have identified many interesting examples which exist. The table below shows those identified by McManus,¹¹ with many being named after trees or shrubs which makes sense given the religious symbolism many of these held in ancient Ireland. But this also again raises questions about the usage of ogham beyond simple epigraphs, adding greater credibility to the claims in the Irish myths noted above.  

While ogham would have likely been unsuited for larger, complex writing in books, there is some evidence that writing in other forms existing in pre-Christian Ireland. A 4^th century Christian philosopher referred to books in his visit to Ireland at least a century before the arrival of St. Patrick.¹² However, beyond this reference, I haven’t been able to find any further evidence and sadly any archaeological record is almost certainly lost to history. Which then brings us back to what we do know – where ogham inscriptions have been found.

Linguistic Roots of Ogham

Over 400 inscribed stones and fragments are known today. Nearly all date from the 4th to 7th century AD, matching the script’s linguistic dating. The vast majority of ogham inscriptions we have today are on ogham stones, large pillar stones which dot the Irish landscape. However, it is likely many inscriptions have been lost to the decay of time, particularly those carved on wood, or damaged due to ploughing. Therefore, what we do know, is going to be incomplete and partial. But there are a remarkable number of examples and more are being discovered and mapped with each passing year.

Of the inscriptions that do exist today, the vast majority are located in the southwest of Ireland as shown on the map here. Others have been identified across all regions of the United Kingdom, but there is an obvious concentration in Ireland (over 80%), Wales (7-8%), and Scotland (7-8%).¹³ Geographically, the vast majority are in Ireland. In fact, Kerry alone accounts for about one-third of all known stones, especially on the Dingle Peninsula which has roughly 60 Ogham monuments. Cork and Waterford also have many, especially along ancient trade routes or church sites.

Ogham Beyond Ireland

Beyond Ireland, a few ogham stones turn up wherever Gaelic culture reached. Wales has several bilingual stones (Latin text on one face, ogham on the edge). Britain’s far west – Cornwall, Devon – has a handful (the ancient Irish tended to sail or migrate through these areas in the post-Roman era). Scotland and the Isle of Man each have several, often in areas of close contact with Ireland. In Wales the bilingual nature (Latin and Irish side by side) suggests the stones were set where both languages were understood. No ogham stones have been found north of Scotland or in continental Europe.¹⁴

The spread of ogham inscriptions into Scotland is believed to be linked to the close relationship between Scottish and Irish territories within the Kingdom of Dal Riata.¹⁵ The cultural interchange and migration between southern Ireland and Wales are also well established, but whether ogham originated in Ireland or elsewhere is still subject to debate. However, the prevailing theory of its origination in Ireland is that it accompanied the spread of Christianity and was introduced by Gaelic colonists from Wales and Britain.

Ogham today

Reflecting on these ancient practices of writing, it’s clear the Irish understood – probably better than we do today – the power and dangers of the written word. The Irish understood that when words are committed to some physical form they take on a whole new being. On the one hand, they can be traded, stolen, and misused. While on the other, they can establish shared understandings of things, spread ideas and knowledge, and pass on knowledge from one generation to the next.

There’s something to be said for taking time to consider this ancient approach to writing. For my part, it gives me pause when I consider my own writing and the importance of what I publish. Words should not be taken lightly, nor liberally, something which has long been lost to most on social media. But, like the ancient Cu Chulainn’s ogham inscription warns, sometimes we too should stop and go no further.

1. Gregory, L., 2024. Gods And Fighting Men The Story Of The Tuatha De Danaan And Of The Fianna Of Ireland Arranged And Put Into English. BoD–Books on Demand. ↩︎ ↩︎
2. Gregory, L., 2024. Gods And Fighting Men The Story Of The Tuatha De Danaan And Of The Fianna Of Ireland Arranged And Put Into English. BoD–Books on Demand. ↩︎
3. Estyn Evans (1966) Prehistoric and Early Christian Ireland. London: BT Batsford Ltd., pp33. ↩︎
4. Stifter, D. (2006) Sengoidelc: old Irish for beginners. Syracuse University Press., pp11. ↩︎
5. Evans, 1966:33. ↩︎
6. Stifter, 2005:11. ↩︎
7. P.W. Joyce (1906) A smaller social history of ancient Ireland. Dodo Press. pp125. ↩︎
8. Ciaran Carson (2007) The Tain. London: Penguin University Press., pp26. ↩︎
9. Carson, 2007:26. ↩︎
10. For more examples see: https://brehonacademy.org/ogham-and-irish-mythology/ ↩︎
11. Damian McManus (1991) A Guide to Ogham. Maynooth: An Sagart., pp36-39. ↩︎
12. Joyce, 1906:126. ↩︎
13. Connelly, C. (2015) A partial reading of the Stones: a comparative analysis of Irish and Scottish Ogham pillar stones (Master’s thesis, The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)., pp7. ↩︎
14. Interestingly, some enigmatic ogham inscriptions in Scotland appear not to be Irish at all, possibly Pictish; they remain undeciphered. ↩︎
15. Connelly, 2015:44-46. ↩︎

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