| Corpus Refs: | Macalister/1907:120 Macalister/1945:257 |
| Site: | BAYEL |
| Discovery: | first mentioned, 1907 Westropp, J. |
| History: | Macalister/1945, 252: `The stone lay, in 1837, beside a holy well...The well was called, in English, `Well of the Tub', and was held in great veneration...the name was supposed to be derived from a concealed tub of gold; the inscription gave, it was believed, the clue to its hiding place. O'Keeffe [John O'Keeffe, the portrait painter] wanted to take it away there and then, to send to Windele, but Hall [a man 'of great intelligence and taste' living at Rathkeale] told him `he would be murdered if he touched it': Hall himself, however, having had his acquisitiveness stimulated by O'Keeffe's enthusiasm, aterwards went and took it to his own home, which, as O'Keeffe notes in the letter in the Windele MSS., from which these facts are derived, `has altered my opinion a great deal about him'. The stone was in Hall's possession in 1840, when it was seen and sketched by Windele..It afterwards became the property of a local `Philosophical Society' and was ultimately lost when that body went the way of all associations of the kind. What became of it is unknown'. Macalister/1907, 25--31, reproduces the correspondence of Windele and O'Keeffe in full. |
| Geology: | Macalister/1907, 28: `light brown sandstone'. |
| Dimensions: | 0.76 x 0.18 x 0.0 (converted from Macalister/1945) |
| Setting: | Lost (present 1840, missing 1907) |
| Location: | Macalister/1945, 252--253, states that the stone was extant in 1840 but, after becoming the possession of the local `Philosophical Society', its whereabouts became unknown. |
| Form: | Indeterminate |
| Condition: | inc , inc |
| Folklore: | Macalister/1945, 252, records the tradition that the inscription contained clues to a hidden `tub' of gold. The stone was situated next to a holy well, the water of which was only used for cases of sickness. |
| Crosses: | none |
| Decorations: | no other decoration |
| Macalister, R.A.S. (1907): | --]D[-]QMAMAQI ||| RAG ||| AVVECC Expansion: --]D[-]QMA MAQI RAGAVVECC Macalister/1907 28--29 reading only |
| Macalister, R.A.S. (1945): | D[A]Q[U]MAQI ||| RAG ||| AVVECC Expansion: D[A]Q[U]MA MAQI RAGAVVECC Macalister/1945 253 reading only |
| Orientation: | vertical up along down |
| Position: | n/a ; arris ; n/a ; undivided |
| Incision: | inc |
| Date: | None published |
| Language: | Goidelic (ogham) |
| Ling. Notes: | none |
| Palaeography: | none |
| Legibility: | inc Macalister/1945, 253: `Of the contents of the inscription we know no more than is provided by (1) a MS. note of Windele's which came into Brash's hands, and from which the latter prints the legend (substituting v's for his f's) as D...qma maqi Bogagavvecc, with an attempt at interpretation which need not detain us; (2) a sketch in the Windele MSS., been reproduced from a photograph, which shews a difference from Brash's copy - a rather wide space between Q and 1M - wider than that between D and Q - and letters which as they stand read BZAGAVVECC after MAQI : (3) a wash drawing, apparently by O'Keeffe, also in the Windele collection, and confirming the copy in No. (2). I do not understand Windele's notes at the right hand end of his drawing. BZ must be broken R...Unless the whole stone should one day come to light again, we can say no more than this'. |
| Lines: | 1 |
| Carving errors: | 0 |
| Doubtful: | no |