Many of these stones are weathered away from centuries of erosion. You may only be able to figure out what some of the message means.

If the stone is embedded next to a hill or large rock, assume you read the stone by facing the geological feature it’s next to. If you translate a horizontal stone and the message simply doesn’t make sense, you may have stood on the wrong side of the stone. Unfortunately, there’s no way around this.

This line is sort of like the line on a piece of notebook paper that guides a sentence. Many of the Ogham stones use a corner as the vertical line that guides the inscription. If the marks are on a sharp edge of the stone, treat the entire corner as the line you need. Letters in Ogham are determined based on their relationship to this line. For example, a single mark going to the left of the line is the letter H, while a single line going right of the line is a B. A single line that goes both right and left of the line is actually an A.

If you’re on vacation with your family, they probably aren’t going to be happy about you sitting in front of a stone for 20 minutes to translate a 1500-year-old burial stone. These readings can take some time. You can always take a photo if you’re really in a rush.

If there are no spaces, you’ll need to do some guessing when it comes to separating the letters out into individual words.

One mark – B Two marks – L Three marks – F Four marks – S Five marks – N

One mark – H Two marks – D Three marks – T Four marks – C Five marks – Q

One mark (at an angle) – M Two marks (at an angle) – G Three marks (at an angle) – NG Four marks (at an angle) – ST (or Z)[9] X Research source Five marks (at an angle) – R

One mark – A Two marks – O Three marks – U Four marks – E Five marks – I

One dot – A Two dots – O Three dots – U Four dots – E Five dots – I

An X carved over the center line – EA A square bisected on opposite corners by the center line – OI A sequence of 90-degree angles forming a curl – UI Two sets of parallel lines sticking out of the center line and crossing – IA A checkerboard pattern – AE

There is a formula you can use to convert the letters to Basque (a language in Europe) and look the definitions up in a complete dictionary, but this is kind of complicated. It’s much easier to search the word on its own. [14] X Research source Some words are unknown and have not been completely translated.

You may also stumble on “maqiritte,” which is a combination of “son” and “stone. ” It roughly translates to “the stone of…” Some of the stones have odd inscriptions or phrases. One stone reads, “To compare with the name of the horse. ”[16] X Research source

Often, the names are Gods. The word “lugaddon” appears often on the stones. This is a reference to Lugh, a warrior God in Irish mythology.

Some of the stones have not been translated. They’re either too worn down, or the original author wasn’t very careful with their carving.

The stones outside of Ireland are mostly older and were mainly carved between 800-1100 CE.

You can also call the university to see if they offer guided tours.

If you’re staying in Ireland specifically to go look at artifacts in the Dingle Peninsula, the port town of Dingle is a great place to stay. If larger cities are more your vibe, stay in Tralee, which is a popular tourist spot just outside of the peninsula.

Some of the stones sit horizontally on the ground, but the vast majority of them are planted vertically. A handful of the stones have signs or placards next to them, so keep an eye out for modern signs set up near large stones as you’re traveling around. However, many of the stones are just sitting out in nature. [25] X Research source Unfortunately, it can be hard to find maps of where the stones are located. You can search online to see if there are any stones in the county or area where you’re staying, though!