The stone now resting as a feature in the grounds of Donickmore House in County Cork began its recorded life in a rather different setting: wedged into the north side of a field fence, unnoticed and uncelebrated. A bullaun is a boulder or block, typically of sandstone or granite, into which one or more cup-shaped hollows have been ground, most often associated with early medieval ecclesiastical sites, though examples also appear in purely agricultural or ambiguous contexts. This one is an irregular block measuring 0.75 metres by 0.55 metres by 0.3 metres, with a single circular hollow, 0.3 metres across and 0.1 metres deep, sitting centrally on its upper surface.

When it was first formally recorded on 31 January 1984, the stone lay along a field boundary. The field to its south contained no fewer than five fulachtaí fia, a fulacht fia being a type of burnt mound associated with prehistoric cooking, thought to involve heating stones and dropping them into water-filled troughs. That cluster of five in a single field is a notable concentration, and their proximity to the bullaun stone, whatever the relationship between them, suggests this corner of east Cork saw sustained human activity across a considerable span of time. Sometime after the 1984 recording, the bullaun was lifted from its fence-side position and relocated to the garden of Donickmore House, roughly 600 metres to the west, where its measurements were formally noted again in 2002. A second, smaller bullaun stone was also found in the same field and is now kept inside the house itself.

The original field location, recorded under the site reference CO066-012002, lies approximately 600 metres east of Donickmore House. The bullaun in the garden is visible as a garden ornament, though its context there is entirely domestic rather than archaeological. The smaller companion stone, held indoors, is not on public display.