At a ringfort in Ballinahinch, County Wicklow, a bullaun stone was recorded in 1977, only to have vanished entirely by the time anyone went back to look again. A bullaun is a large stone, often associated with early Christian or prehistoric sites, that bears one or more deep, rounded depressions worn or carved into its surface; they were used for grinding or pounding, and in later folk tradition were frequently credited with healing properties. Their presence at ringforts, the circular earthwork enclosures that dot the Irish countryside, is not uncommon, but their disappearance is a reminder of how quietly the physical record can dissolve.

The stone was noted at the ringfort during a site visit in 1977, but when the monument was inspected again in 1990, no visible trace of it remained. Whether it was moved, buried, broken up, or simply absorbed into the landscape in the intervening thirteen years is not known. That gap between observation and absence is the whole of the story here, a small archaeological mystery without a resolution.