Bullaun stone, Morrissysland, Co. Wexford

Co. Wexford |

Holy Sites & Wells

Bullaun stone, Morrissysland, Co. Wexford

At the site of a long-vanished church in Morrissysland, County Wexford, an ancient granite stone sits embedded in the top of a grave-enclosure wall, repurposed as building material at some point in the past but still clearly what it always was: a bullaun stone, a roughly worked rock bearing a deliberately carved or pounded circular basin.

These objects are found across Ireland and are associated with early Christian and pre-Christian ritual use, though their precise purposes remain a matter of debate among scholars. What makes this one quietly arresting is the indignity and the durability of its situation, pressed into service as walling stone while its basin, roughly 33 to 35 centimetres across and 20 centimetres deep, continues to collect rainwater just as it presumably did centuries ago.

The enclosure marks the location of St. Stephen's church, and two bullaun stones survive here in total, both of granite. The one built into the wall measures approximately 70 by 60 centimetres across and stands around 30 centimetres high; the second lies nearby. It is not unusual for bullaun stones to cluster around early ecclesiastical sites, where they may have served in liturgical washing, healing rites, or cursing rituals depending on local tradition. That one of the Morrissysland stones was incorporated into the enclosure wall suggests the church or its boundary was rebuilt or repaired at some point after the stones were already in use, with whoever did the work apparently unconcerned about disturbing them, or perhaps seeing no contradiction in the reuse.

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