Aghascrebagh, County Tyrone

Ogham, our first form of writing, was developed in the 5th century.

As the very first inscribed monuments in Ireland, these strange stones bring us to a momentous point: the threshold of ‘history’.

For this was the first time we could fully record our story ourselves, rather than relying on the landscape to tell it for us.

These stone records are usually markers indicating burial places or territorial boundaries.

The ability to translate these seemingly obscure strokes was made possible by entries found in the Book of Ballymote which dates back to the fourteenth century.

There is much debate and uncertainty over the genesis of the language, some claim that it derives from the Greek language and came to Ireland as a result of trade between Ireland and Greece, while others have argued that it was based on the Roman Script.