Ogham Script

Ogham is the early medieval alphabet you often see carved along the edges of standing stones across Ireland and parts of western Britain. It’s a striking writing system made from straight strokes and notches cut relative to a central stemline - perfect for carving on stone or wood.

Ogham was primarily used to write Primitive Irish and Old Irish. Most surviving Ogham inscriptions are monumental - cut into the edges of stones - and date from roughly the 4th–9th centuries AD. The script is organized into groups of five signs and is often called the Beith-Luis-Nin after the names of its first three letters. Modern scholars still debate the script’s exact origin and influences, but it remains one of the most distinctive written legacies of early Ireland.

• Ogham signs are built of simple strokes or notches placed to the right, left, across, or through a central stemline. 
• Traditionally each sign corresponds to a letter (or sound) of an early Irish alphabet. 
• Because it’s linear and geometric, Ogham was well suited to carving on stone edges or wooden staves. 
• The medieval manuscript tradition later associated many letter names with trees (the so-called “tree alphabet”), though that association likely post-dates the earliest inscriptions.
  

Type any English (or Latin-alphabet) word or name into the box below and the translator will show its usual Ogham transliteration.