What is recorded here

Kilmanaghan graveyard holds a small rough boulder with an oval hollow cut through its surface, cemented onto a pedestal beside ruined church walls. The smooth depth of the dip suggests ancient prayer, yet the angular shape and tiny size point instead to a medieval water stoup for washing hands before mass. Either way, the stone survived burial and reappeared during a 1970s clean-up, carrying forgotten rituals into the light beside the remains of the church that once stood there.

Cemented onto small pedestal of cut stone blocks up against the external S face of SE angle of church ruins (OF002-030004-) in Kilmanaghan graveyard (OF002-030002-). An oval-shaped hollow (top diam. 0.31m; base diam. 0.11m; D 0.14m) is cut into the surface of a roughly shaped boulder (0.6m X 0.39m; H 0.26m). It is not clear whether this stone represents a bullaun stone of Early Christian date or if the stone may have been used as a water stoup in the medieval church ruins. The small size of the boulder along with the angular shape of the stone may suggest that it was used as a stoup in the medieval church. However the shape and smoothness of the oval-shaped depression would be suggestive of a bullaun stone classification. This boulder may have been found during the graveyard clean-up in the 1970s when an Early Christian cross-slab (OF002-030003-) was also uncovered. Compiled by: Caimin O’Brien Date of upload: 30 September 2014

Probably dating to the early Christian period, the bullaun stone was likely used for ritual or symbolic purposes, such as the preparation of holy water or as a site for pilgrimages. In folklore, such stones are often associated with healing and saintly traditions.

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