One is ancient; the other is a blunder. The boulder, measuring 60 by 44 centimetres and standing 35 centimetres high, bears a deliberately carved oval basin scooped into its upper surface, roughly 29 by 26 centimetres across and nearly 19 centimetres deep. This makes it a bullaun stone, a type of early medieval carved rock found across Ireland, typically associated with ecclesiastical sites or holy wells, and thought to have served ritual, penitential, or possibly practical purposes. The bowl on this example is well formed and substantial. The second history is considerably less dignified.

Somewhere along the way, someone drilled a hole near the base of the boulder, 3.5 centimetres in diameter and 14 centimetres long, bored through at a 45-degree angle. The likely intention was to split the stone or repurpose it, a fate that has befallen many an ancient carved rock in a working landscape. The drilling shattered the face of the boulder where the drill exited the underside, leaving a visible scar. Whoever did it did not finish the job, and the stone survives, though permanently marked by the attempt. The hole is considered recent and is certainly not part of the original carving. The boulder was originally found in one of the farm's fields before being moved to its current position in the farmyard, which at least offers it some degree of incidental safekeeping.

The stone is modest in scale and easy to overlook in a working farmyard context, but the combination of a carefully hollowed medieval basin and a clumsy near-miss with a drill bit gives it an oddly layered character. The damage is not subtle; the shattered underside is a frank record of how close utilitarian pragmatism came to erasing something much older.