Bullaun stone (present location), Toureen, Co. Tipperary

Co. Tipperary |

Holy Sites & Wells

Bullaun stone (present location), Toureen, Co. Tipperary

A sandstone block sitting on its edge within the enclosure of a holy well might seem unremarkable until you look more closely.

This particular stone has been deliberately propped upright to display two circular depressions, one on each opposing face, the kind of worn, bowl-like hollows that define what archaeologists call a bullaun stone. Bullauns are among the more enigmatic survivals in the Irish landscape; the depressions were ground into the rock over long periods, possibly for ritual use, the preparation of pigments or medicines, or purposes no longer recoverable. What makes this example quietly unusual is not just its double-sided arrangement but the fact that it is not where it started.

The stone was brought to its present position, within the holy well complex at Toureen Peakaun in County Tipperary, around 1990. The move was made for safekeeping; its original home was Ballydrehid townland, immediately to the east. The sandstone itself contains quartz pebble inclusions, giving the material a slightly speckled quality, and the two hollows differ slightly from one another. The depression on the eastern face measures roughly 29 by 30 centimetres and reaches about 12 centimetres deep, while the one on the western face is shallower, at around 7 centimetres, and marginally narrower. Setting the stone on edge was a practical solution to making both faces visible and accessible, though it also gives the object an oddly upright, almost presentational quality within its enclosure, just two metres south of the well itself.

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