Bullaun stone, Tullylease, Co. Cork

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Holy Sites & Wells

Bullaun stone, Tullylease, Co. Cork

Tucked into a wall press at the eastern end of the chancel in Tullylease church, Co. Cork, sits a small oval stone that once held the holy water for an entire congregation.

It is easy to overlook, being roughly the size of a large loaf of bread, but the worn hollow at its centre tells a long story of repeated, habitual use.

The stone is a bullaun, a type of ancient carved rock found widely across Ireland, typically featuring one or more cup-shaped depressions ground into the surface. Their origins and original purposes remain the subject of debate among archaeologists, but many became absorbed into Christian practice over the centuries, associated with healing, cursing, or, as here, the blessing of water. This particular example measures roughly 0.34 metres by 0.23 metres, with a central hollow about 0.18 metres across and 0.06 metres deep, worn smooth by what must have been centuries of contact. The local antiquarian Grove White recorded it in 1907, describing it as a small cup stone situated near St Berichter's stone, another significant object within the same early ecclesiastical enclosure at Tullylease. He noted a local tradition that the hollow held water throughout the year, winter and summer alike, and that it had formerly served as the holy water font of the old church. That claim of perpetual water retention, whether literally true or part of a devotional memory attached to the stone, points to the kind of quiet reverence that kept such objects in use, and in place, long after the original buildings around them had fallen away.

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