Bullaun stone, Sevenchurches, Co. Wicklow

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Bullaun stone, Sevenchurches, Co. Wicklow

A small stone with two bowls carved into opposite faces, connected by a hole bored clean through the middle, sits in a stone store at the visitor centre of Glendalough, the monastic valley at Sevenchurches in County Wicklow.

That perforation, linking one basin to the other, is what sets this particular piece apart. Most bullaun stones, which are rocks bearing one or more cup-shaped depressions ground into their surface, are thought to have served ritual, votive, or perhaps practical purposes at early medieval Christian and pre-Christian sites across Ireland. This one adds an extra layer of curiosity by being, in effect, a vessel that communicates with itself.

The stone is modest in scale, measuring roughly 33 centimetres by 26 centimetres and only 13 centimetres thick. One of its two basins is hemispherical, about 14 centimetres across and 9 centimetres deep, giving it the smooth, rounded interior typical of stones that have seen prolonged use or deliberate shaping. The second basin, on the opposite face, is shallower and has noticeably steeper, flatter sides, with a flat base around 5.5 centimetres in diameter, suggesting a different hand or a different intention. The base of the stone is covered in what was recorded as a mortar-like substance. Accompanying it is an oval pebble, roughly 8 centimetres by 6.5 centimetres, of the kind often associated with bullaun stones and sometimes used as a grinding or rotating element within the basin itself. Whether the pebble was found with the stone or matched to it later is not recorded.

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