Ancient characters travel westwards with unsubtle performer (5)
I believe the answer is:
ogham
'ancient characters' is the definition.
(historical Irish alphabet)
'travel westwards with unsubtle performer' is the wordplay.
'travel' becomes 'go' (synonyms).
'westwards' is a reversal indicator (letters go right to left or from 'east' to 'west').
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'unsubtle performer' becomes 'ham' (ham is a kind of performer. I am not sure about the 'unsubtle' bit.).
'go' in reverse letter order is 'og'.
'og'+'ham'='OGHAM'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ogham that I've seen before include "Old Celtic alphabet" , "character forming" , "Ancient Irish writing carved in stones" , "Old Irish writing carved into stones" , "Old Irish writing of carved lines and notches" .)