One time the landlord Danny Hewittson of the Lough Veagh estate was erecting a mill in his yard and he sent some of his men to the old abbey in Gartan for a stone which he thought suitable for putting under the upright shaft. This stone was round in shape and there was a hollow in the centre. It was supposed to have been used by Colmcille for holding holy water in his abbey.
When the mill was complete he told the men to bring the horses along and [?] it but all the horses on the estate could not drive it. They removed the stone and put it back in the abbey and substituted another stone. The mill then worked perfectly.
Sounds a bit like a bullaun stone to me. St Columkille / Colmcille certainly had a lot of stones.
From the Losad / Losset volume of The Schools’ Collection, transcribed online at Duchas.ie. I can’t make out the [?] though.
I think it might be "test" (i.e. test the mill).
He writes his t's unusually.
It is isn't it. You genius.
Ha, years spent reading indecipherable documents has finally paid off.