Bullaun stone, Cloon, Co. Kerry

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Holy Sites & Wells

Bullaun stone, Cloon, Co. Kerry

On the surface of a leacht in Cloon, County Kerry, sit two stones that have been worked by human hands at some point in the distant past, each bearing a deliberate hollow ground into the rock.

A leacht is a low, flat-topped cairn or stone heap, often associated with early Christian pilgrimage practice and commemoration of the dead, and it is on one such structure that these bullauns rest. A bullaun is a rounded or irregular boulder into which one or more cup-shaped depressions have been carved, and they are found across Ireland in contexts ranging from monastic sites to holy wells, though their precise purpose remains a matter of quiet debate among archaeologists.

The first of the two boulders at this site measures roughly 45 centimetres by 40 centimetres. Its upper surface carries a circular depression 32 centimetres in diameter and 10 centimetres deep, a basin that would have held rainwater. Bullauns of this kind are sometimes associated with folk cures, ritual washing, or the grinding of materials, though no single explanation covers every example. The site was documented by A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan in their 1996 archaeological survey of the Iveragh Peninsula, published by Cork University Press, and the monument has been subject to a preservation order since 1976, recognising its significance under the National Monuments Acts.

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