The ogham stone at Cloghanecarhan carries a name that means ‘devotee of the rowan’, and a few steps away grows a rowan tree that local tradition held would ward off malevolent spirits. Whether the two are connected nobody can say, but it’s the kind of detail that rewards the effort of finding this place – a small early-medieval enclosure in a working farm field on the Iveragh Peninsula, about 7 km south-east of Cahersiveen.
What it is
Cloghanecarhan has been described as a ringfort or ‘cashel’, but the Office of Public Works, which owns and minds it, reckons it was more likely an early monastic site than a farmstead or fort. It’s known locally as Keeldarragh, probably from the Irish Cill Darra – ‘the church of the oak’. Built around AD 600, the enclosure holds an early medieval cross slab, three leachta (rectangular dry-stone altars used in ritual) and the foundations of a round hut. Just outside the bank is a souterrain, the concealed underground passage that early communities used for cold storage and, at a pinch, as a bolt-hole during a raid.
The ogham stone
Ogham is the earliest written form of the Irish language, an alphabet of strokes cut along the edge of a stone and read from the bottom up – as this one is. The slab here is slate, a little over two metres long, catalogued by scholars as CIIC 230. Its inscription reads as ‘of Ec…án(?) son of Mac-Cáirthinn’, and that surname element – Maqi-Cairatini – means ‘devotee of the rowan’, the link back to the tree. Look closely and you’ll see the carving sits over an earlier, partly erased inscription: the stone was used twice.
It originally stood at the eastern entrance to the enclosure. In recent years it was moved to the northern side and laid horizontally on two supports, which, awkward as it sounds, makes the strokes far easier to read than on a weathered upright.
Is it worth the trip?
Be honest with yourself about what this is: a modest, unstaffed monument with no centre, no signs to speak of and no facilities, reached down a rough lane. If you collect ogham stones or you’re already passing on the Ring of Kerry it’s a genuine find; as a destination in its own right it’s a slim one. The OPW asks that you treat it gently – it’s a protected National Monument in a livestock field, so don’t shift stones, climb the altars or disturb the earthworks, and keep any dog on a lead.
Getting there and nearby
It’s a car job. Head south-east from Cahersiveen and save the coordinates (51.8884° N, 10.1840° W) before you go, because the turn-off and lane are easy to miss; park on the roadside without blocking gates. The ground is uneven and slippery after rain, so wear boots.
Closer-in heritage near Cahersiveen makes a better-rounded half-day: the stone forts at Cahergall and Leacanabuaile, Ballycarbery Castle on the shore, and Ballinskelligs Abbey down the coast. The nearest staffed OPW site is Daniel O’Connell’s home at Derrynane, about 15 km away.