A granite standing stone in the townland of Maudlings, Co. Kildare, has acquired a rather mundane reputation among those who know it best. Local tradition holds that the stone, which rises to just over 1.6 metres, serves as a scratching post for livestock. The trouble with that explanation is that the stone shows no obvious signs of wear, none of the polished surfaces or rounded edges that generations of itchy cattle would reliably leave behind.

The stone itself is notably regular in its proportions, almost square in cross-section, measuring 0.29 metres by 0.26 metres, and is set on a NE-SW orientation. It sits on a gently east-facing pasture slope, roughly 35 metres west of the Morell River as it runs northward through the Kildare landscape. What makes it stranger still is a small perforation near the top of the stone, running NW-SE through the granite. Holes deliberately worked through standing stones are occasionally found across Ireland and Britain, and while their original purpose is debated, they tend to suggest intentional prehistoric craftsmanship rather than agricultural convenience. Granite is a hard, coarse-grained igneous rock, not easy to shape or pierce, which makes the perforation all the more deliberate-seeming. Whether the orientation and the piercing were related to astronomical sightlines, boundary marking, or ritual practice, the stone does not say.