What is recorded here

Durrow Abbey once held two medicine stones: a headache stone at the cross base and a backache stone behind the rampart. People believed pain could be rubbed, moved or given through the rock. That belief turned stone into a participant in the body, not a dead thing.

A sketch of the field to the S of Durrow church (OF009-0050013-) and graveyard (OF009-005009-) containing the monastic enclosure was drawn by Reverend Sterling de Courcy Williams in 1899 which shows the upstanding remains of the monastic enclosure (OF009-005003-) along with a 'backache stone' now lost and the 'headache stone' which is the small base of the high cross (OF009-005007-) standing along the avenue into Durrow Abbey House. In 1870 there is a reference to this 'backache stone' when Mr. Thomas Stanley of Tullamore recorded that ‘within the ancient gate of Durrow, immediately behind the rampart (OF009-005003-), a conglomerate rests upon a raised piece of green sward. It is about four and a-half feet long. And due west of it, at some distance, there is a singularly marked limestone, most famous as curing pains in the back’ (Anon. 1870, 28). See attached drawing taken from De Courcy Williams 1899 which shows location of backache stone. Compiled by: Caimin O’Brien Date of upload: 29 April 2014

Likely dating to the early medieval period, the Bullaun stone in Durrow Demesne may have been used for ritual purposes, possibly as a site for anointing or holy water. It is associated with the wider monastic landscape of Durrow, reflecting the spiritual significance of the area.

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