The tallest ogham stone in the World

The Ballycrovane Ogham Stone stands 17 feet tall and is the tallest Ogham Stone in the World. These stones have short marks were made in groups of between one and five notches, strokes, or diagonal lines, usually on the edge of the stone. Each group signifies a sound in Old Irish, and they are the oldest surviving written form of the language which is still spoken in this area. The sounds are based on the Latin alphabet and the inscriptions can signify a single name or a phrase such as ‘X son of Y of the family of Z’, but sometimes a little more detail is added. Inscriptions can date from the end of the 4th up to the early 8th century AD. The southwest of Ireland has the greatest concentration of Ogham stones where 360 have been recorded. They are mainly found on burial grounds as memorials or as territorial markers. An inscription on the stone reads: “MAQI-DECCEDDAS AVI TURANIAS” meaning “son of Deich descendant of Torainn” The monolith is thought to be a bronze age standing stone with the ogham added at a later date.