Bullaun stone, Fence, Co. Wexford

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Holy Sites & Wells

Bullaun stone, Fence, Co. Wexford

At the Faythe cross-roads in Tacumshin village, County Wexford, a block of granite sits quietly at the roadside, easy to walk past without a second glance.

It is a bullaun stone, a type of ancient stone featuring one or more hollowed basins ground into its surface, found across Ireland and generally associated with early Christian sites, though their origins and uses remain debated. What makes this one quietly odd is how little official attention it has attracted: it appears on the 1940 edition of the Ordnance Survey six-inch map, but that is more or less the extent of its cartographic life.

The stone itself is a substantial rectangular block, measuring roughly 96 centimetres by 76 centimetres across and standing 67 centimetres high. At its centre is a single circular basin, about 20 centimetres in diameter and 15 centimetres deep, the kind of hollow that would have collected rainwater and may once have held ritual or practical significance. On either side of that main basin are two much shallower depressions, each only around 6 centimetres across and barely a centimetre or two deep. Whether these smaller marks were deliberately worked or are the result of long weathering is not recorded. The granite itself is a durable material, and the stone has clearly endured a great deal simply by sitting at a country crossroads through several centuries of passing traffic and changing townland names.

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