What is recorded here

Cork Public Museum holds the ogham stone from Geara South, Co. Kerry, discovered in 1953 inside a hidden stone passage that quarrymen destroyed before anyone could study it properly. The shaly sandstone slab still bears knife-cut scores spelling BRANADDOVMA MAQI QOLI MUCOI DOVIV, a name and lineage pulled from darkness just long enough to be read. What is lost is the chamber itself, unmarked on maps and erased by gravel trucks, leaving the stone as a witness without its room.

This is the present location in Cork Public Museum of the ogham stone from Geara South, Co. Kerry (KE092-049001-). A Man-made underground passage (KE092-049----), not marked on the OS maps, was discovered in 1953 during quarrying operations at a gravel ridge a short distance N of the confluence of the Blackwater and Derreendarragh rivers (O'Kelly and Kavanagh 1954a, 50-3). It consisted of a stone-built passage roofed with slabs, and was destroyed during the quarrying. An ogham-inscribed slab of shaly sandstone was discovered free-standing in the passage. It measures 1.45m in overall length and .3m x .12m in maximum width and thickness. Its lower end is roughly tapered while the upper end was broken off in antiquity. Its inscribed face and side are ground smooth and the angle features well-spaced, narrow, knife-cut scores. The inscription reads up the dexter angle: BRANADDOVMA MAQI QOLI MUCOI DOVIV . . . The last character present could also be N or S. Indeed it was interpreted by McManus (1997, 70-1) as: BRANADDOV MA[QI] MAQIQOLI MUCOI DOVI[NIAS]. (O’Sullivan and Sheehan 1996, no. 881) Compiled by: Nora White Date of upload: 26 February 2017

This remains an important historical record, but the official description says the monument is no longer visible or has been destroyed. The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.