Bullaun stone (present location), Lickeen, Co. Wicklow

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Bullaun stone (present location), Lickeen, Co. Wicklow

A granite boulder sitting in the Wicklow landscape, its flat top unmarked and seemingly unremarkable, holds its real interest along one edge, where three carefully worn depressions cluster together as though gathered in quiet conversation.

This is a bullaun stone, a type of ancient monument found across Ireland in which one or more cup-shaped basins have been ground into the surface of a boulder, most likely through long and repeated rotary action. Their exact purposes remain debated, but they are frequently associated with early ecclesiastical sites and with folk traditions of healing, cursing, or ritual use that persisted long after any original function was forgotten.

The stone at Lickeen measures 1.65 metres by 1.1 metres and stands 75 centimetres high. The three basins are clustered at one edge rather than across the broad flat summit, which is itself entirely smooth. The largest basin is 33 centimetres by 30 centimetres and between 12 and 20 centimetres deep. It shares a wall with a smaller basin measuring 18 by 24 centimetres and 9 centimetres deep, one side of which opens out to the very edge of the stone. The third basin, at 20 by 30 centimetres and 25 centimetres deep at its back, is the most pronounced of the three. A companion bullaun is recorded nearby. Notably, this stone is described as being at its present location, a phrasing that carries some weight: a separate record exists for an unknown original location, meaning the boulder was moved at some point in the past and its earlier context, whether ecclesiastical, funerary, or otherwise, has been lost.

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