Stone sculpture, Drumdutton, Co. Donegal
Co. Donegal |
Stone Monuments
In the early 17th century, Captain Thomas Dutton established a settlement in County Donegal that would bear his name for centuries to come.
Around the same time he built his house and village at Drumdutton, he likely commissioned the construction of a small church that still stands as a testament to the area's colonial past. The church, now recorded as monument DG026-019001, represents one of the earliest Protestant places of worship in this part of Donegal, built during a period of significant political and religious upheaval in Ireland.
Just over thirteen metres northeast of the church's corner sits an intriguing granite block, roughly square in shape and measuring about half a metre across. This weathered stone features a carefully carved circular depression on its top surface, approximately 32 centimetres wide and 20 centimetres deep. While its exact purpose remains unclear, such carved stones often served ritual or practical functions in early modern Irish communities; perhaps as a bullaun stone for grinding grain or herbs, or possibly holding holy water for the church congregation.
The site once included a burial ground that appeared on Ordnance Survey maps from the 19th and early 20th centuries, though no visible traces of these graves remain today. This disappearance of the cemetery speaks to the broader story of abandonment and change that has affected many of Ireland's smaller ecclesiastical sites, where centuries of weather, agriculture, and shifting populations have gradually erased the physical markers of past communities whilst leaving behind tantalising fragments like the church ruins and mysterious carved stone.