Yet another "I found a stone" question...

10-10-20

My 6 year old daughter has a habit of picking up stones from beaches etc and bringing them back to the house. I normally chuck them out later on.
Anyhow, I found this one in her room recently and she clearly recalls picking it up on Bray beach.

It has very curious markings and an interesting shape. What do you reckon of it?

Attributes:
1. It's 8cm x 4cm x 1.5cm and is mainly light brown.
1. It's covered in a 'dendritic' pattern of black dots all over except for two specific areas.
2. It has a circularly worn concave section - almost from hinge-like movement.
3. It has three very small holes in the stone on opposing sides. Both are oval shaped.
4. It has 'rake' marks on one end.

I have my thoughts, let's see whether anybody concurs.

Overview 1:
20170424_225304.jpg

Overview 2:
20170424_225316.jpg

Short end with rake marks:
20170424_225419.jpg

Hole #1, surrounded by lighter coloured area.
20170424_225516.jpg

Circular, concave area.
20170424_225557.jpg

10-10-20

Hole #2, smaller but also with lighter shaded area immediately around the orifice.
20170424_225432.jpg

pontoonz

stone age bottle-opener

10-10-20

'It's good, but it's not right!'

Any other clues?

recedite

Are you sure its a stone?
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dog-walker-finds-lump-of-whale-1564302

Step23

I'm guess from the beach, it's very likely a stone with manganese oxides on it, which has a dendritic habit, nothing archeological. Google 'dendritic pyrolusite' to see more examples.

Stephen