What is recorded here

Newgrove House, Ballyslattery, County Clare. A small squared sandstone boulder sits beside an ancient wedge tomb, its deep oval hollow facing outward like a cup waiting for rain. Westropp measured the same basin near a holy well decades before the stone appeared at the tomb, suggesting people moved it rather than discovering it in two different places. The boundary between fact and story blunts here, but the stone remains clear: a smooth, deliberate hollow cut or worn into rock, now set beside older stones as if joining their company.

Situated partially blocking the entrance of a wedge tomb (CL035-002----). A small, squared ex-situ boulder (L 0.7m; Wth 0.6m; H 0.7m) set on its side with the hollow facing outwards. The hollow is oval (L 0.27m; Wth 0.25; D 0.1m), very well pronounced and is roughly in the centre of this face. According to local information, this stone was located c. 1-2m to NE of the tomb and was used to block the entrance from livestock in relatively recent times. In his account of the holy well (CL035-001----) c. 360m to N, Westropp (1919, 92), describes it as containing a ‘small oval rock basin or bullán 22” x 18” across and perhaps 13” deep’. No bullaun stone seems to survive at the holy well and it may have been moved to the megalithic tomb sometime between Westropp’s visit in 1916 and De Valera and Ó Nualláin’s survey in the 1950s. It is feasible that these may be the same bullaun stone, although this is not certain. De Valera and Ó Nualláin (1960, 77) describe the stone as sandstone, differing from the limestone of the tomb. The holy well, bullaun stone and wedge tomb are located on lands of the former Newgrove House, named on the OS historic mapping. The following photos are uploaded: CL035-163----_01.jpg From E. NE side of megalithic tomb and E elevation of bullaun stone. CL035-163----_02.jpg From E. E elevation of bullaun stone. CL035-163----_03.jpg From ESE. Context view of bullaun stone. Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Alison McQueen Date of upload: 24 October 2017

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