Yet the stone, measuring roughly 1.07 metres by 0.6 metres, is a bullaun, a type of early medieval ritual stone characterised by one or more deliberately hollowed depressions worn or carved into its surface. Bullauns are found widely across Ireland, often in association with early Christian sites, and are thought to have served a range of purposes, from grinding grain to holding water used in blessing or cursing rites. What makes this particular example quietly odd is its domestication: rather than standing in a churchyard or field, it has been built into the fabric of Glendalough Cottage, incorporated into a wall as though it were simply a convenient piece of masonry.

A second bullaun lies inside the gate of the same property, less dramatically embedded but equally displaced from whatever original context it once occupied. The area known as Sevenchurches is the old name for the Glendalough valley, a reference to the cluster of early medieval ecclesiastical remains associated with Saint Kevin's monastic settlement. Bullauns in such settings were likely part of the ritual or practical furniture of these communities, and it is not unusual to find them scattered, moved, or repurposed over the centuries. Healy noted both stones in 1972, by which point their reuse in cottage architecture was already long established.