But that hollow is the whole point. This is a bullaun stone, a type of ancient carved rock found across Ireland, typically associated with early Christian or pre-Christian sacred sites. The cup-shaped depression, just under nine centimetres deep, was almost certainly not accidental; bullaun hollows are thought to have held water used in ritual or curative practices, and in some traditions the water that collects in them is still considered to carry healing properties.

This particular stone sits about sixteen metres northeast of St Abban's grave, a proximity that almost certainly explains its survival and its significance. St Abban is one of those early Irish saints whose biography blurs into legend, associated with foundations across Leinster and Munster, and the presence of a bullaun near a saint's grave places this sandstone block firmly within the landscape of early medieval devotion. The stone itself is modest in scale, a subrectangular block measuring roughly 74 centimetres by 60 centimetres, but its careful hollow speaks to deliberate, repeated human attention over a long period.