What is recorded here

Three ogham stones from a Kerry rath now stand inside Lord Dunraven's mansion at Adare, pulled from an underground passage and reused as lintels before their final journey. One stone bears the name Coillabbotas, possibly commemorating a father, while a fourth vanished entirely after serving a cottage door. The stones crossed counties and centuries, carrying markings and memory from a forgotten landscape into a grand hall where they still wait to be read.

Six ogham stones, reused as roof lintels, were found in a Man-made underground passage (KE057-023001-) in a rath (KE057-023----) in the townland of Rockfield Middle, Co. Kerry (Barry 1891, 516). Macalister (1945, 239) noted that four of the stones were taken from the Man-made underground passage and used in the building of a cottage in the village of Laharan. Subsequently three of the four stones were removed to Lord Dunraven's mansion at Adare (ibid.) where they still are. The fourth was left behind, and 'is now lost to sight'. (ibid., 240). No. 2 (KE057-023003-): This stone was described by Brash (1879, 222-3) as 'a tall, tapering monolith standing 6ft. 10in. [2.08m] high above ground, and 11in. [0.27m] by 101/2in. [0.26m] at bottom' and inscribed on two angles of the same face. Macalister (1945, 240, no. 244) read the inscription as 'COILLABBOTAS MAQI CORBBI MAQI MOCOI QERAI' and suggested that this stone 'possibly commemorates the father of the owner of No. I'. Macalister also recorded that this stone served as a lintel over the front door of the house of a man named Patrick Quirk (ibid., 241). Compiled by: Nora White Date of upload: 19 September 2016

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