Aghade Holed Stone or Cloghaphoill is a large holed stone and a national monument located in Aghade, County Carlow, Ireland.
The hole may have permitted the offering of food or other objects to the dead.
The 14th-century Book of Ballymote offers a story where Niall of the Nine Hostages ties Eochaid, son of Énnae Cennsalach mac Labhradh (a 5th-century King of Leinster) to the Aghade Holed Stone and sends nine men to kill him:[5] Then Niall went to Leinster upon a hosting, and he said that he would not go from them so long as he was alive, or until Echu were given him as a pledge and hostage.
So he was taken to Ath Fadat [Fád's ford] in Fothairt Fea on the bank of the Slaney, and was left there before Niall, with a chain around his neck, and the end of the chain through the hole of a stone pillar.
Up to the 18th century it was common for sick children to be passed through the hole, in the belief that this would cure them.