Located in the Wild Garden, you’ll find the first installment of our Ogham Sculpture Trail. At the foot of the great Alder is a mixed media piece by local artists, father and daughter duo, Tom & Ella Allison, and the incredibly talented woodworker, Adrian Caudwell. This magnificent piece incorporates Alder, Iron, and augmented reality. Ogham is an ancient Irish alphabet likely created between the second and fourth centuries AD and is the oldest recorded form of written Irish. Ogham is read from bottom to top, with each notch or series of notches representing a sound in the Irish language. It is most commonly found written along the edges of standing stones, of which Munster has the highest concentration of documented sites.
Alder (Alnus Glutinosa) is the third consonant of the Ogham Alphabet and the sound equivalent of our letter ‘F’. According to an old Irish tradition, it was believed that the first man sprang from an alder tree. Due to the colour change of the wood once felled, which turns from white to a blood-like red, this tree became known as The Protector, and was commonly used as the base material for defense equipment such as the shield.
Sneem TidyTowns is working with Féilte na Snadhma and Sneem Story House to develop the Ogham Tree Trail which will eventually contain a mix of sculptures, videos and talks.
We began this trail in 2023 by erecting an Alder sculpture in the Wild Garden. A piece of local alder was found and carved by local woodworker Adrian Cauldwell, the ironwork designed and created by local blacksmith, Tom Allison and the graphics and signage completed by arts graduate, Ella Allison. This graphic introduces the Alder sculpture
In 2025, we commissioned a second Ogham Tree Sculpture with the support of Creative Communities Programme 2025. This will represent the Scots Pine, one of the nobles of the wood.
The Artists
Adrian Caudwell is a passionate sculptor, carpenter and woodsman. His heart is in the woods, reforesting, growing, maintaining and harvesting native woodland for sustainable silviculture. With over 40 years experience of working with wood, he’d still prefer to be standing under the trees.
Thomas Allison is an experienced Blacksmith with 27 years experience. He has been the resident blacksmith at Muckross Traditional Farms for over 15 yrs. Over the years he has completed a wide body of work from tool making to art pieces and loves making organic forms from metal.
Ella Allison is a recent graduate from Limerick School of Art and Design working in both traditional and digital mediums, curious about new modern technologies and combining them with older crafts. A passion for social design underpins her practice with keen interest in raising awareness on social issues, sustainability and circular economic theory. Work has previously been included in the Bolivia Poster Biennial main exhibition and shortlisted for award.
Niall Mac Coitir is author of “Ireland’s Trees: Myths, Legends & Folklore” as well as “Ireland’s Plants”, “Ireland’s Wild Birds” and “Ireland’s Animals”. Niall has given two talks in Sneem Story House about the Ogham alphabet and Trees and we have video footage from these.
