Wakeman — The Bulldns^ or Bock-basins j found in Ireland. 259 
of the larger kind are to be seen in the chambered earns of ITewgrange, 
Dowth, and Sliabh-na-Caillighe. (See Plate XVIII., fig. 1.) 
Some years ago, when exploring the rich, pagan, urn -bearing 
cemetery of Drumnakilly, near Omagh, Co. Tyrone, I was fortunate 
enough to disinter several stones, evidently the floors of cists. Each 
of these exhibited large cup-hollows, or bulldn-like excavations, over 
which highly decorated cinerary vases containing large quantities of 
burnt human bones were found in situ, placed mouth downward. Two 
of these stones I have deposited in the Kilkenny Museum. (See Plate 
XVI., figs. 1 and 2; see also Plate XVIII., fig. 3.) J^^ow here at 
least four well-marked bowls or hollows of the kind under notice 
were discovered certainly associated with funeral rites or usages, upon 
the exact nature of which, with our present knowledge, it is, perhaps, 
useless to speculate. This "find," however, suggests the idea that 
the basins already referred to, as occurring in some of our greater earn 
chambers, may have been formerly surmounted by sepulchral vases of 
which no trace remains. 
Eefore proceeding further, it may be well that I should draw at- 
tention to the characteristics which the lulldns usually present. In 
plan they are invariably more or less circular, while in section they 
vary considerably. (See Plate XVIII., fig. 4.) The majority are 
simply bowl-shaped, with a depth about equal to their diameter ; 
while others present the figure of an acutely-pointed cone. They 
rarely exceed eighteen inches in diameter, and it should be observed 
that many examples are considerably smaller. In not a few instances 
the hollow is flat-bottomed and extremely shallow — sometimes little 
more than a couple of inches in extreme depth. 
Concerning remains of this class many stories are current amongst 
our country people ; but such legends are scarcely worthy of serious 
attention, and not a few of them are obviously concoctions of com- 
paratively recent times. In a note, however, to the late Eev. F. 
Shearman's Loca Patriciana, 4th series, vol. iii., p. 281, of the Journal 
R.H.A.A.I., an interesting reference to a stone of the kind will be 
found. Mesgegra, King of Leinster, in the first century of the Chris- 
tian era is slain, and decapitated by Conal Cearnach, the champion of 
Ulster. The head is laid upon a stone, and the tale records " that the 
blood pierced the stone, and flowed through it to the ground." This 
relic of pagan days is said still to remain in the stream opposite the 
ruined Franciscan church of Clane. " It is a hulldn stone, and has an 
inverse conical cavity eighteen inches deep and as many wide on its 
upper surface." 
