Bullaun stone, Killinaboy, Co. Clare

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Bullaun stone, Killinaboy, Co. Clare

In a rough grass field just south of Killinaboy Church in County Clare, a large limestone boulder sits partly embedded in the ground, its upper surface holding two water-filled hollows that have almost certainly been there far longer than anyone can now say.

This is a bullaun stone, a type of ancient carved or worn rock found widely across Ireland, typically associated with early Christian or pre-Christian ritual use. What makes this example slightly unusual is that it carries two such hollows rather than one, making it a double bullaun, a less common configuration that suggests either deliberate paired carving or sustained use over a very long period.

The boulder itself is irregularly shaped and measures roughly a metre by just under a metre. The two circular depressions on its surface are close together, separated by only about thirteen centimetres. The western hollow is approximately twenty-four centimetres across at the top and sixteen centimetres deep; the eastern is slightly wider and deeper, at twenty-seven centimetres across and seventeen centimetres deep. Both have gently sloping sides and rounded bases, and both collect rainwater. The stone came to wider attention after field clearance work in the area, documented by the Killinaboy History and Heritage Group in 2014. A mound of clearance material, including some very large stones, lies roughly ninety metres to the west, suggesting the immediate landscape has been tidied and reorganised at some point, though the bullaun itself remained earthfast and undisturbed.

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Pete F
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