The Drumlohan Ogham Stones and Souterrain are a very interesting site, with two separate but intertwined histories. Known locally as the ‘Ogham Cave’, the souterrain was uncovered by a farmer in 1867. Ten Ogham stones that must have been removed from a nearby ecclesiastical site were found built into the walls and roof of the souterrain. The souterrain was probably built around 800-900AD using Ogham Stones that predated it by a few hundred years. In 1936 five of the stones were removed from the souterrain and placed either side of the pit, three stones remain as part of the roof while another two line its walls. Each of the stones bares an inscription for example one states in CUNALEGEA MAQI C..SALAR CELI AVI QVECI, translates as ‘of Conlang son of C. follower of the descendant of Q’; the name CUNALEGEA contains a commonly occurring element ‘CUNA’ meaning ‘dog’ or ‘hound’. Another stone reads BIR MAQI MUCOI ROTTAIS, BIR, from Berr ‘short-haired’ and ROTTAIS is the tribal name Rothrige, one of the families of the Déisi of Munster. The souterrain measures 2.5 metres by 1.5 metres and is 1.2 metres in height. One of the roofing slabs also appears to have cup-marks dating from the Neolithic period however I have not found this to be conclusively proven in research thus far. Drumlohan is a lovely site, it is a shame the surrounding fence wasn’t even just a little bit further away from the structure however its much needed as the field is used for grazing.

GPS: 52.16331, -7.46538