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Bullaun and other stones

  • 22-05-2024 6:43pm
    #1
    looksee
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,095 ✭✭✭✭


    IMG_20240522_192214.jpg

    I wonder does anyone think this might be a bullaun stone? Its randomly in my garden.

    There are also a couple of these

    IMG_20240522_192245.jpg

    which I am told are harrow stones (a chain goes through the hole at the top and they are/were dragged behind a horse/tractor to harrow soil.)



Comments

  • #2
    kildarejohn
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 328 ✭✭kildarejohn


    Based on the scale on the ruler, it looks a bit small for a bullaun stone, but I am no expert.



  • #3
    looksee
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,095 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    Thank you for responding, yes that was my problem with it. Initially I had thought it was a stone from the bottom of a gate, the 'bowl' acting as a pivot, but then I realised it is not big enough to support a gate, it is only a couple of inches thick. The hollow does not look like a natural shape so I am intrigued as to what it might be.



  • #4
    Peregrinus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,998 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    This can be a natural formation. You have a stone lying in a river bed, at a point where the river is fast-flowing and turbulent. There's already a shallow natural depression in the surface of the stone, or a crack. Grit or pebbles settle in that depression/crack and then, because the water is eddying and swirling, are swirled around rather than simply being washed out. Friction from the swirling of the grit/pebbles gradually makes the depression larger and deeper; larger pebbles or small stones can become trapped in in and swirl around; the hole gets bigger; rinse and repeat.



  • #5
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 50,891 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    how flat is the first stone? it just seems a little too flat and the hole too nicely circular to appear natural at first glance.



  • #6
    looksee
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,095 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    Its really quite flat on top, though not machined, not so much on the other side. I don't think the hole is naturally formed, eve n by water, though you can't see any chisel marks or indications that it was ground away by something on it (like a gate hinge). It looks like local stone to me, though the area has a lot of shale and its not quite that.



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  • #7
    looksee
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,095 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    image.png
    image.png

    Top pic is the underside of the stone. I just wetted and washed off the face and there are scratches in the bowl, and I suspect they may be mechanical, though I have no idea.

    This site had/has an old cottage on it and there was a small-holding and recent (mid 20th C) evidence of pigs (as well as local info) it is possible that the stone was somewhere where a chain or water or something regularly dropped onto it and created the bowl.



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