Bullaun stone, Kilmurry, Co. Wicklow

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Holy Sites & Wells

Bullaun stone, Kilmurry, Co. Wicklow

At Kilmurry in County Wicklow, a granite boulder with a carefully worn hollow was recorded sitting just outside the south-western corner of an old church ruin, and then, some years later, it simply was not there any more.

That kind of quiet disappearance is not entirely unusual for bullaun stones, the rounded rocks bearing one or more cup-shaped depressions that are found at early medieval ecclesiastical sites across Ireland. Their origins and precise purpose remain debated; some were likely used for grinding, others became associated with cursing rituals or holy water, and many have drifted over the centuries from their original positions as land was cleared, repurposed, or robbed for building material.

The stone recorded at Kilmurry was an oval block of granite measuring 89 centimetres long, 69 centimetres wide, and 40 centimetres deep, with a single oval basin scooped into its surface, roughly 29 centimetres by 25 centimetres and 22 centimetres deep. It was noted in November 1990, positioned immediately outside the south-western angle of the church remains. When the site was revisited in 2013, the bullaun could not be found. Whether it was moved, buried, or absorbed into a nearby boundary is unknown. What remains is the church ruin it once accompanied, and the faint possibility that the stone is still somewhere close by, simply overlooked or turned face-down in the grass.

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