In South-East county Kildare, very close to the modern county Wicklow border, in the middle of nowhere lies perhaps the most important graveyard of the Pagan era, at least that is known of and still exists today. Killeen Cormac is named after King Cormac Mac Airt, the famed High King (Ard Rí), who is believed to have lived in the 2nd century CE. He is said to be responsible for all the oral knowledge of Ireland being written down into books. Clearly if this is true, the Pagan Irish were not illerate, as is often suggested. He also left a text known as 'The Wisdom of Cormac' which has been translated into English and other languages.
The remains of a building on the mound were described in the 19th century, but this has not been confirmed by later writers or modern archaeologists. King Cormac was reputedly buried here but with no major archaeology undertaken, no bodies have been exumed from this ancient site. Whatever it once was, this place is deeply significant within ancient Pagan society, but its importance seems to have been completely forgotten if not deliberately excluded from modern narratives about Irish history.
Today this site has a stone wall enclosing it and it is full of trees, but this wall was constructed around 1830 and early drawings of the site, from the early 1800s show that it was not originally forested. Another change to the site is that some of the stones, in particular a unique stone that we will come to shortly. This uncredited pencil drawing shows Killeen Cormac before it was enclosed and completely covered in trees.
This site was almost completely forgotten but knowledge of it was spread by the late Ben MacBrady, a Druid (of Druid Clan Of Dana and 'The Order') who died in the 1990s. Some of his writing is preserved in the republication of one his articles (4 pages from the early 1990s) in our Spring 2024 issue (PI 11). You'll also find an obituary for him (Pagans of the Past) by Artist Andrea Redmond in our Autumn 2023 issue (PI 9). MacBrady highlighted the ancient stone that has now been removed to The National Museum: Archaeology, in Dublin that is the sole example of a bi-lingual Ogham/Latin stone in Ireland.
This stone references the Druids buried there 'Four True Druids' and inscriptions were written in both Ogham (Irish script) and Latin (Roman script). In Ogham: OVANOS AVI I/VACA/TTOS, in Latin: IVVEṇ/̣ṛE DRVVIDES although they may not have the same meaning. Note: the stone is show lying down here for convenience. According to the Ogham in 3D project it is currently on display at Kildare Street, however it has not been on display for most of it's time at the museum. You can see a photo of the stone here: https://ogham.celt.dias.ie/stone.php?lang=en&site=Colbinstown&stone=19._Colbinstown_I&stoneinfo=description
This is perhaps the most important and significant stone here and perhaps in all of Ireland. While there is not a single book remaining from the pre-Christian period (St. Patrick is credited with burning 400+ Pagan books) this stone proves that the pre-Christians, of the Druidic era could write, and not just in one language! The modern view has long been that the ancient Irish could not read or write - Ogham is 'officially' extant from the beginning of the Christian era. However, evidence of contact with Rome and Greece Stretches back to the beginning of that millennium.
There is a long history of this place, which you can still find in books from the 19th and early 20th century, but it has been largely overlooked in the last 100 years. To the due North, facing the entrance and to the due East are two matching Ogham stones, constructed from a light coloured stone that is different from all of the stones inside the graveyard. Given their orientation and similar distance, I wonder if there were once 2 more stones, to the South and West, which are no longer present. Whatever the case may be, this is a significant site from the late Druidic era, that may well date to long before that. We simply do not know the truth of this place, as it has not been professionally examined in any depth with modern equipment and techniques.
This site has perhaps (or rather once did have) the largest collection of Ogham inscriptions in one location. Unfortunatley, time and the weather have made the ogham inscriptions either invisible or incredibly difficult to read, although modern scanning techniques may still reveal what is written on them. The Editor (Luke Eastwood) visited this site on two occasions and was unable to decipher the few Ogham inscriptions that he was able to find.
Who knows what Killeen Cormac can teach us about the Druidic past and what secret it holds under the ground.? Where were the missing stones taken and why were they removed? How many graves are at this site and will they ever be excavated? At the moment few (if anyone) have answers to these questions. One can only hope that this significant site will be re-examined and its full significance might come to light. While some dispute that is is a pre-Christian site at all, the links to Cormac Mac Airt, the style of some of the grave markers and the reference to Druids would suggest otherwise - a complete excavation of the site would prove whether or not this is the case.
Diagram of the (now walled) graveyard with the locations of the ancient gravestones.
One of the ogham stones with the corresponding Irish inscription.
An effigy of a person on one of the upright. stones (without Ogham writing).
The video below is from 2023 - note there are many more modern graves that have been added, up to the early 20th century.
