Sterling silver Earrings from early Irish Heritage:

Before vellum manuscripts, early Irish people carved inscriptions on stone using ogam or ogham. The earliest examples date from the 4th–7th centuries AD, with over 400 surviving today, mostly in Ireland.

Ogham is unusual among world writing systems. Instead of letters, it uses groups of one to five parallel lines, their value depending on their position relative to a central stemline, usually the stone’s edge. Inscriptions, often wrapping around the stone, were carved vertically and typically read upwards.

These sterling silver earrings designed by Robert Spotten, represent an Ogham stone with a special message written in Ogham based on the Irish word "Gra" meaning  "LOVE".
Check out our Ogham range comprising of earrings and pendants with the words: LOVE, PEACE, EIRE and DERRY.

Why not consider a personalised Ogham jewellery with your own name or message on it? Please contact us to order.

The story of the Ogham Stones:

Long before books, the earliest Irish writing was carved into stone. These inscriptions, called ogham, date from the 4th–7th centuries AD, with more than 400 examples surviving today.

Ogham is unlike any other script. Instead of letters, it uses groups of one to five lines or notches, placed along a central stemline — usually the stone’s edge. The carvings often run up the side of the stone, sometimes wrapping around it in a striking three-dimensional design.

Most ogham inscriptions are short. They record personal names, usually with a father’s or family group, such as “son of” (MAQI) or “descendant of” (AVI). These provide the earliest written form of the Irish language.

The alphabet had 20 characters, many with names linked to trees or everyday words — birch (beithe), oak (dair), hazel (coll). Extra letters were added later as the language changed.

Ogham stones stood in many places: at burials, on boundaries, in ringforts and, most often, near early Christian sites. They served as memorials, land markers, and even legal proof of ownership.

Although later replaced by the Latin alphabet, ogham knowledge lived on in manuscripts and education, surviving in use well into the Middle Ages.