Keshia Glover (Member no: 1159)

Altyre Ogham Cross Slab

Trips like this uncork something, and that ancient connectedness comes pouring out - the land, time, it's people. The things we share: golden fields, golden ale, a yearning to be remembered

Stone-hunting at Lughnasadh time: the Altyre Ogham Cross Slab

A tall slab of grey sandstone stands alone in a field, a weathered carving of a cross on either face, and an eroded ogham inscription running up one narrower side.

It was clearly erected to speak forever, to long outlive those who carved it, yet it has survived so long, it now tells us little.

These early Christian Ogham stones are often testaments to land ownership; one's belonging in place, but even it's location origin is uncertain. It is said it was moved here in the early 19th century. The 3+ metre stone slab may even be a prehistoric standing stone, reused in antiquity, carved to speak new meaning.

Trips like this uncork something, and that ancient connectedness comes pouring out - the land, time, it's people. The things we share: golden fields, golden ale, a yearning to be remembered.

In different tongues, to different gods, we issue the same prayer: may our presence here have meaning, may our barley grow strong and our beer flow rich.