How to Read Ogham

The Stem Line

Everything in Ogham is organised around a central line called the druim (Irish for "ridge" or "back"). On a traditional Ogham stone, this is not drawn — the edge of the stone itself is the stem. The carver scores strokes into the corner of the stone, using the natural edge as the baseline.

In written or digital Ogham, the druim appears as a vertical or horizontal line, and all letter strokes branch off it. Think of it as a spine — every letter hangs off the same backbone.

Reading Direction

On a traditional standing stone, Ogham is read bottom to top. You start at the base of the stone and read upward along the edge. Some inscriptions continue around the top and down the other side — in which case you keep reading in the same direction, like climbing around the stone.

In modern horizontal usage — on screens, in books, or in horizontal tattoos — Ogham is read left to right, with the stem line running along the bottom. This is the convention used in our Ogham translator.

The Four Groups (Aicmí)

The Ogham alphabet is divided into four groups called aicmí (singular: aicme), each named after its first letter. The position and direction of strokes relative to the stem determines which group — and which specific letter — you are reading.

Within each group, the number of strokes tells you which letter it is. One stroke = first letter of the group, two strokes = second letter, up to five strokes for the fifth letter.

So: one stroke to the right = B. Two strokes to the right = L. One stroke to the left = H. Three strokes to the left = T.

The Vowels

The vowels form the fourth group, Aicme Ailme, and work differently from the consonants. Rather than strokes branching off the stem, vowels are represented by notches cut directly through the stem line itself:

• One notch = A ᚐ
• Two notches = O ᚑ
• Three notches = U ᚒ
• Four notches = E ᚓ
• Five notches = I ᚔ

On a stone inscription this means vowels were carved as small cuts across the edge itself — easy to miss if you don't know what to look for.

The Forfeda — Extended Characters

The Forfeda (Irish for "extra letters") are five additional characters added to the original 20-letter alphabet, likely to represent sounds that emerged as the Irish language evolved. They appear far less often in stone inscriptions and were more commonly used in manuscript Ogham.

The Forfeda cover diphthong sounds — EA, OI, UI, IA, AE — that the original alphabet didn't fully capture. Our translator includes a toggle to enable or disable them depending on your preference. You can see every Forfeda character on the full Ogham alphabet page.

Modern Usage

Today, Ogham appears most commonly in tattoos, jewellery, and Celtic art. A few important things to know:

• It is a transliteration, not a translation. Modern English or Irish words are mapped letter-for-letter onto Ogham characters. The script converts the alphabet — it doesn't translate meaning.
• Direction matters for tattoos. A vertically written Ogham tattoo should read bottom to top to be historically accurate.
• The stem marks ᚛ and ᚜ (feathermarks) traditionally appear at the start and end of an inscription to mark its boundaries — like quotation marks.
• Word spacing was traditionally indicated by a diagonal stroke or small gap; in modern use a regular space is used.

A Real Inscription

Here is a real Ogham inscription — one of the best-known examples from early medieval Ireland:

You can see the stem marks ᚛ and ᚜ at the start and end, and spaces between words. Each cluster of strokes is one word — try entering any word into the Ogham translator to see it written the same way.