What is recorded here

Holed stone in Poulnalour: the tallest stone in a small Clare graveyard, a mossy upright slab with one clear hole near the top. People have long pointed through holes in stones, as if asking the world to let something painful pass. Standing beside it, you can imagine a woman lifting a child’s fevered arm, or a man passing his own wrist through the small ring, not in pride but in desperation. The church sits nearby, yet the stone belongs to older human cleverness: make the body follow the shape of relief.

Situated within a graveyard (CL010-108003-) 3m from its SW edge. The tallest stone in the graveyard, this holed stone (H.48m) is a simple, undressed, upright limestone slab (H 0.48m) containing a natural hole (diam. 8cm) near its top. Otherwise the stone is heavily moss-covered and appears featureless. Swinfen (1992, 139) described this stone as containing two holes, and she suggested such stones ‘were connected with ancient curative superstitions.’ Sheehan (1982, 36) noted that these sorts of stones are quite commonly found at early church sites. There is a church (CL010-108002-) just to the N, situated in the W side of the graveyard. Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Conn Herriott Date of upload: 28 June 2023

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