Marked as a ‘Cromlech’ on the original 1833-4 OS map, this feature was romantically described as ‘the druidical remains of an altar’ in contemporary survey notebooks. The site drew enough interest that Lieutenant T.A. Larcom and George Petrie, two prominent figures in the Ordnance Survey’s historical department, made a special visit to examine it in 1835. Yet by 1848, whatever had stood there was gone; the OS map of that year soberly notes only the ‘Site of Cromlech’, suggesting the stones had been removed, perhaps repurposed for field walls or building materials as was common practice at the time.

The exact nature of this lost monument remains tantalisingly unclear. Whilst early surveyors were quick to attribute druidical significance to ancient stone structures, modern archaeology suggests it was more likely a megalithic tomb of some type, possibly a portal tomb or court tomb typical of the region. The site’s low-lying position near Lough Foyle, surrounded by rich pasture land, would have made it an attractive location for Neolithic farmers who built such monuments across Ireland between 4000 and 2500 BCE. Various antiquarian scholars attempted to catalogue the site throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, though some confusion arose when William Borlase mistakenly conflated it with another cromlech at nearby Condum Beg in his 1897 survey.

Archaeological investigations in 1999 and 2001, conducted ahead of housing developments in the area, revealed little trace of the original structure. Test trenches uncovered only natural deposits of silts, gravels and sands overlying boulder clay, with no megalithic remains or archaeological features discovered. The area does retain one tangible link to its past in the form of a cillín, or children’s burial ground, located at the base of the slope where the development now stands. These unconsecrated burial grounds, used from medieval times into the modern era, serve as poignant reminders of Ireland’s complex religious and social history, even as the more ancient monuments that once dotted this landscape have vanished into memory and map annotations.