diff --git a/mutable_buffer/src/chunk.rs b/mutable_buffer/src/chunk.rs
index ff2dcb3d71..4bb2c1c2a7 100644
--- a/mutable_buffer/src/chunk.rs
+++ b/mutable_buffer/src/chunk.rs
@@ -272,7 +272,7 @@ impl MBChunk {
 
     /// Validates the schema of the passed in columns, then adds their values to
     /// the associated columns in the table and updates summary statistics.
-    pub fn write_columns(
+    fn write_columns(
         &mut self,
         _sequence: Option<&Sequence>,
         columns: Vec<entry::Column<'_>>,