What is recorded here

Bullaun stone in Inishmurray is a bullaun stone in Inishmurray, County Sligo, Ireland. It stands outside Templenaman church at the south wall beside the doorway, holding a rough bowl ten inches across. Wakeman measured the stone at one foot nine inches long and one foot two inches broad in 1893. Mountbatten wrote that it served baptisms in the modern period.

Located outside Templenaman church (SL001-002001-), at the S wall, adjacent to the doorway. This is as described by Wakeman (1893, 122): ‘A very rough boulder-looking stone, one foot nine inches [0.53m] in length, by one foot two inches [0.35m] in breadth. Its bowl is ten inches [0.25m] in diameter and of considerable depth.’ According to Mountbatten (1972), this bullaun was used for baptisms in the modern period. This is a National Monument (no. 117) in state ownership. The above description is derived from the results of a survey of the archaeological monuments on Inishmurray undertaken in 1997-1999 and published in: Jerry O’Sullivan and Tomás Ó Carragáin 2008 Inishmurrary. Monks and pilgrims in an Atlantic landscape. Volume 1: Archaeological Survey and Excavations 1997-2000. Cork. The Collins Press. Date of upload: 16 January 2018

Probably dates to the early Christian period, associated with ritual or ecclesiastical use. Bullaun stones were often used for ritual purification or as part of monastic sites, and may have had both Christian and prehistoric significance.

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