Wishing Stone at Maulinward
I am a firm believer in wart wells: there is one at Clonmacnoise, the holy centre of Ireland, and some years ago when I was visiting the place I dipped my finger – warts and all – in it. Within… well, perhaps it was two or three weeks… the warts had gone. The Cynics among you will be saying that they might have gone anyway, but I have had other warty experiences to reinforce my beliefs. When my daughter Phoebe was 11 years old and we were living back in Devon she had a really bad outbreak of warts on her hand. The doctor couldn’t recommend anything but our neighbour was very sure of what to do: take her to see Auntie Grace who lived up the lane. We duly knocked on Auntie Grace’s door and showed her Phoebe’s hand. “That’s alright, Dear” she said, and shut the door. That was all. But within a week (more or less) the warts had vanished completely, never to return.
Curing my warts at Clonmacnoise
Bullaun Stones abound in Ireland. They are usually found at sites with ecclesiastical connections – as the two examples above (and this one), but this association does not reduce or affect their traditional uses: to cure or to curse. The Irish word Bullán means ‘bowl’ – a water container. At pilgrimage sites, such as St Gobnait‘s Well, Ballyvourney, the bullaun stones often hold smooth rounded pebbles – perhaps incised with a cross – which are turned around each time a pattern or procession is completed.
Bullaun at St Gobnait’s Grave, Ballyvourney
In the sixth century, the Council of Tours ordered its ministers “…to expel from the Church all those whom they may see performing before certain stones things which have no relation with the ceremonies of the Church…” Such an order doesn’t seem to have prevented folk traditions of curing continuing into the twenty-first century.
Wart Well at Timoleague Friary
Traditionally, in Ireland similar stones are used for less benign purposes than curing warts or other maladies. Thankfully not in West Cork but in faraway Cavan a group of bullaun basins and stones at the ruined Killinagh Church are associated with curses, as explained here by Harold Johnston in a 1998 interview: “…if you wanted to put a curse on someone, you turned the stones anti-clockwise in the morning.” However, the curse had to be ‘just’ otherwise it came back to curse you in the evening!
An 1875 drawing of the Killinagh Cursing Stones
Nearer to home, in County Cork, are the ‘cursing stones’ known locally as the Clocha Mealachta – not in this case associated with bullaun basins but kept hidden under a slab of rock, which seems a bit sinister to me.
Hidden Cursing Stones at Labbamolaga, Co Cork
I prefer the legends which show bullaun stones as a force for good: in more than one location they are said to be associated with a local saint. St Kevin of Glendalough (in County Wicklow) drank every morning from the Deer Stone, a bullaun which miraculously was always filled with milk.
Deer Stone at Glendalough
St Kevin
Roaringwater Journal 
This is an old post and I am sorry to just have read this. In 2010, we went on a family trip to Ireland from the States. Clonmacnoise was one of the last stops before we ended in Galway. I remembered the tour-guide at Clonmacnoise, a young female, pointing to this unassuming stone in the ground and stating that it has been known to cure warts by rubbing the water on the affected area. She laughed and proceeded to move onto the next piece of the tour.
I was hesitant and also a bit apprehensive, because I did not want the rest of the tour group to think I had the “ich” by being the first to dip my finger in the stone. But, before this visit, I had a wart on the underside of my left middle-finger, for YEARS!!! Nothing would get rid of it…and I mean nothing! It was quite the nuisance!
As the tour moved on to the next portion with the guide, I glanced over at my then-girlfriend (now wife) at the time, smirked and said, “why not?” I remembered looking down at the stone and remembering that the water did not look like anything you would want to consume…it was green and mossy-like, if memory serves me right. I remembered rubbing the water on the affected area of my middle finger, for a few minutes while we walked to the meet the rest of the tour.
Almost to the day, 10 years later…that wart has never returned! I am not usually one to believe in this sort of thing, but after having this experience, I am 100% a believer that there is something much bigger than ourselves at play here.
What a great article and a conjurer of great memories that will last me and my family a lifetime. Thank you.
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A great story, Nick – thank you. I have heard others with similar experiences (as well as mine with my daughter). Keep an open mind!
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I just love your opening sentence – me too!! And that’s a great tour around some bullaun, the sinister cursing stones look especially interesting. I have a vague memory of a wart person in our village when I was growing up – I seem to remember that money was given and buried under a tree??
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Well, it was said about Gracie Fursdon (Auntie Grace) that you must never talk about money – and, if you tried to give her any then the cure would fail. I have some other good stories about her, which I’ll tell one day…
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Robert, growing up in Dun Laoghaire we didn’t have wart wells so we used the milk from dandelions stems which, I truly believe, made my warts disappear never to return!
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Thank you Shauna – now, I’ve heard something else about dandelions, which is that they make you wet the bed! Any comments on that?
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I’m not touching that one!
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