What is recorded here

False ogham stones still tease men into believing what they want to believe. That is the danger of Callan. A fake grave marker became a weapon in arguments about Irish identity, and scholars ran fields and libraries to defend it. The stone does not need to be ancient to be powerful. It shows that certainty, not age, is the real magic in history.

This flat slab (2.87 x .87m) is known as the 'Mount Callan ogham stone'. Cut on a stemline running down the middle of the stone, it is a late scholastic ogham and has no connection with the 360 or so earlier ogham stones found throughout the country. 'The Mount Callan ogham stone is [today] considered to be modern, carved some time around 1780... It influenced not only the literary controversy [as the inscription supposedly marks the grave of Conán, one of Fionn Mac Cumhaill's warriors] but also stimulated antiquarian fieldwork and provided inspiration for the study of ogham' (de hÓir 1983, 43). Compiled by: Nora White Date of upload: 15 September 2016

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.