AS stone monuments go, it's fairly unspectacular. But the five feet high stone slab near Doagh, Co Antrim, attracts coachloads of courting couples seeking the gift of eternal love.
Local folklore states that the holed stone or hole stone will bestow everlasting love on couples who clench hands through the hole which pierces it. As the hole is only three or four inches in diameter, it is much too small to accommodate any but the puniest of male fists. So the ritual involves the woman reaching her hand through the hole and her partner grasping it, after which the pair pledge their undying love.
Historical records show that couples have used the stone to seal their affections since the last century. Today, it even attracts newly weds who pose before it for wedding photographs.
Stone's age
The monolith sits on top of a natural mound in a remote field in scrubby, stoney countryside in the aptly named townland of Hole Stone. It is designated a scheduled historic monument by the Department of Environment, Northern Ireland (DoE).
There are about 1,000 standing stones or monoliths in the Republic and 500 in the North.
Even experts are uncertain, why these monuments were erected, but as many have been associated with burial, it is believed they were ritual or ceremonial monuments related to a cult of the dead.
Whether the Doagh stone was purpose built as a monument for lovers or has become one over the years is a question archaeologists have been unable to answer.
"The question is whether the Doagh stone is a natural stone which has weathered and people have begun putting their hands through the hole or whether it is part of a larger monument or ritual and was built on purpose," says Mr Richard Warner, the keeper of archaeology at the Ulster Museum, Belfast. There is also little certainty about the stone's age.
According to Mr Warner, it is "at least more than loo years old and could be as much as 5,000 years old". His "gut feeling" is that it dates between the sixth and 12th centuries AD.
"Standing stones are very, very difficult to date," he says.
"They usually are dated by their context or associations. If they bare part of a stone circle or a burial cairn, they are more datable. But when they just stand on their own, we can't put a firm date on them."
But the context of the Doagh stone gives some clues to its origins. In its vicinity are several artificial caves or souterrains which are identifiable as early Christian refuges. Families living in nearby fort settlements would have used the caves to keep their children, women and valuables safe when they were raided.
"This suggests quite heftily that there was early Christian settlement in the vicinity," says Mr Warner. "One could therefore suggest that this is an early Christian stone. But it doesn't necessarily have to have been used for rituals. It might have been something within one of the souterrains."
Intricate origins
If it is an early Christian monument, it is still possible that the hole stone was used for pagan style mating rituals as there is evidence that these continued well into the Christian era. That the hole in the stone can today accommodate only a woman's hand does not mean this was always the case.
The average age of mating couples in the first millennium would have been about 12 or 13. Such lovers, male and female, would doubtless have had thinner wrists than their descendants today. There are also indications that the original purpose of the stone was far from amorous, says Mr Warner. One early Christilegend suggests that such stones were used as the equivalent of latter day stocks to punish wrongdoers. A Leinster hero was said to be chained to a hole stone, similar to that at Doagh so he could be killed. Fortunately, he managed to escape.
Standing stones can be found in Derry. One of these is near Faughanvale and another in a church ground at Agivey, near the River Bann, which was originally a monastic site.
Cornwall, Scotland and Wales also have such stones. The hole in the Cornish stone is larger and was traditionally used to pass babies or children through to cure illnesses. Women who wanted to get pregnant also clambered through the orifice.
Visitors welcome
The senior inspector with the DoE's Environment Service Ms Claire Foley, speculates that the Doagh stone may originally have been a sun dial similar to those at Kilmalkedar on the Dingle peninsula in Co Kerry and Nendrum near Comber, Co Down.
If so, the hole would have been plugged with perhaps a piece of wood to cast a shadow from the sun. It may even have been intended as nothing more than a route marker, a forerunner of milestones, says Ms Foley.
Whatever the origin of the hole stone, it has a special significance for local people. The farmer in whose field it stands, Mr Leslie Wilson, is happy to allow visitors to view it. And the DoE is equally accommodating.
"We wouldn't discourage the wear because the symbolic use of the stone is very important," says Ms Foley. "In a case like this, it's such a focus and has been put to a particular purpose. We wouldn't want to stop any of that. And anyway it's a hardy little stone.