Look a little closer, though, and just above ground level there is a shallow circular hollow worn into the surface, a detail that places this stone in a very different category altogether. It is a bullaun stone, a type found widely across early Christian Ireland, characterised by one or more cup-shaped depressions that were used in ritual or devotional contexts, often in connection with holy wells or early church sites. The water that collects in a bullaun hollow was frequently considered to have curative or protective properties.

This particular stone, measuring roughly 1.1 metres wide and 0.35 metres thick, with about 0.7 metres visible above the ground, has a hollow only 0.07 metres deep, modest but unmistakeable. Its traditional association is with Augeris church, the remains of which lie approximately 250 metres to the north-west. Sometime before 1917, the stone was moved from that original context to its present position in the field fence. This detail is recorded in notes compiled by a Fr O'Donoghue in 1917 and passed on by M. Uí Leime, which means there is at least a rough terminus for when the displacement took place, even if the reason for the move is not recorded. Relocation of bullaun stones is not unusual; they were sometimes shifted during field clearance, road improvements, or simply when their original ecclesiastical setting fell out of use and memory of their significance began to fade.