This roughly built drystone structure, measuring just over a metre wide and standing 63 centimetres tall, is nestled against the northwestern side of a rocky outcrop that rises about two metres high, now overgrown with vegetation and crowned by a rowan tree. Though it didn’t appear on the 1836 Ordnance Survey maps, by 1907 it had earned its place on official records, simply marked as ‘Altar’.

The flat stone slab that forms the altar’s top holds an intriguing collection of objects that hint at centuries of devotion and folk tradition. Among them sits a fragment of an ancient quernstone, alongside two cylindrical stones; one decorated with simple grooves around its circumference, the other plain. In 2011, a more modern addition joined these weathered artefacts: a stone carved with a face, continuing the site’s evolving story. The altar sits within the southern half of what was once a larger ecclesiastical enclosure, suggesting this spot held religious significance long before it became a refuge for forbidden Catholic masses.

The sacred nature of this place extends beyond the altar itself, with three penitential cairns scattered nearby; one immediately to the southeast, and two others about eight metres to the south-southwest. These stone heaps mark stations where pilgrims would have performed acts of penance, creating a small but complete religious landscape hidden in plain sight. Together, these features paint a picture of determined faith during a time when public Catholic worship could result in severe punishment, making this unassuming corner of County Donegal a powerful reminder of Ireland’s complex religious history.