Here's a hint when going bullaun stone hunting in the summer – don't wear shorts. Even though it looks from the map that the stone is easy to find, by the time you get to the bottom of the field, through the barbed wire fence, by the nettles, over the brambles and into the dry stream bed, you may not have any legs left, and what you do retain will be bitten to bits by little bastard bugs.
The Ballyknockan Wart Hole hasn't been visited in quite a while, at least 10 years I'd say. We approached the site coming from Valleymount, through Ballyknockan itself, and on to the parking spot north-east of the village. If you look along the entrance to the parking spot in a straight line, the stone is directly in front of you about 400 metres down through 2 fields. However, there is an easier way – walk back towards the village to the next field on your right, climb the gate and go to the very bottom of this. There's a barbed wire fence here and it's overgrown behind it. The field boundary continues here and over that is a stream. About 40 metres further behind the fence is the stone.
When we did eventually find the granite stone it was overgrown with moss and brambles, and the basin was full. After a quick tidy up the large oval basin was revealed. The water and detritus in this stank to high heaven. I reckon it would cure more than just warts. It felt good to find this, a kind of triumph, as nobody else seems very interested in it and it's in danger of being completely forgotten.
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Posted by ryaner
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