This is a lovely bullaun and it's great to see that the landowners are so happy to have it on their land! I was shown to the stone and told little bits of information about the immediate area. The enclosure that the bullaun stone is in has always been known as The Relic. The bullaun is known as a cure for warts, but people have stopped coming for the water now. One nice story I was told was of a man, an unbeliever, who came to fetch some water for a friend. Ironically, his warts were cured by the water, but not those of the man who requested it.
The bullaun stone itself is 1.5m x .8m (approx) and flush with the ground. A single, large basin (35cm across) occupies one end. It is situated under some large trees making it difficult to photograph without a flash - I shall have to pop back.
A short distance from the stone is a low mound. This has always been known as either The Bishop's Grave or The Giant's Grave. Many years ago people used to come and ask the farmer if they could dig it up, looking for a golden chalice, but he always refused saying that he'd lain in peace this long and he can continue to do so.
This is an explanation of (and a bit of a disclaimer for) the coordinates I provide. Where a GPS figure is given this is the master for all other coordinates. According to my Garmin these are quite accurate. Where there is no GPS figure the 6 figure grid reference is master for the others. This may not be very accurate as it could have come from the OS maps and could have been read by eye. Consequently, all other cordinates are going to have inaccuracies. The calculation of Longitude and Latitude uses an algorithm that is not 100% accurate. The long/lat figures are used as a basis for calculating the UTM & ITM coordinates. Consequently, UTM & ITM coordinates are slightly out. UTM is a global coordinate system - Universal Transverse Mercator - that is at the core of the GPS system. ITM is the new coordinate system - Irish Transverse Mercator - that is more accurate and more GPS friendly than the Irish Grid Reference system. This will be used on the next generation of Irish OS maps. |