Littlestone wrote:
There are similar rites still practiced in some parts of the world, where stones are washed in an act of purification. Perhaps something similar was also going on at Avebury and Silbury, with their abundance of streams, rivers and wells.
There are other reasons for people washing stones before a ritual too. At Magh Adhair, an inaugural site in Clare, the chief used to wash his hands in water that had been rubbed on a piece of stone embedded in a nearby standing stone.The water collected in bullaun stones is said to cure illnesses (usually just warts these days), but if the stones themselves were seen as holding a cure, then making a bullaun in them to gather water would seem like a sensible thing to do.
I like the healing stone theory. It certainly adds (a little) weight to bullauns being ancient.
It's just an early recognition of the presence and power of minerals in water that pass over/through stones!
