This intriguing site appears on both the 1888 and 1909 Ordnance Survey six-inch maps, where cartographers carefully documented what was likely a moated site; a defensive feature common to medieval Ireland. The first edition depicts it as a subrectangular enclosure, whilst later surveys show it transformed into a semi-circular or D-shaped feature, measuring roughly 60 metres at its widest point from east-northeast to west-southwest.

The enclosure’s original form suggests it may have been one of the many moated sites that dotted the Irish landscape during the Anglo-Norman period, typically dating from the 13th to 14th centuries. These earthwork fortifications, consisting of a raised platform surrounded by a water-filled ditch, served as defended homesteads for colonists and wealthy farmers. The site at Parkbeg measured approximately 50 metres east to west and 44 metres north to south, with a notably straight northeastern side extending 45 metres. A field boundary once intersected the northwestern corner, running northeast to southwest, though this too has since vanished.

Today, nothing remains visible at ground level; the site was likely levelled when the intersecting field boundary was removed, and subsequent tillage has erased any surface features. What we know of this lost monument comes entirely from those meticulous Victorian-era surveyors and the archaeological inventory compiled by P. David Sweetman, Olive Alcock and Bernie Moran in 1995. Their careful documentation ensures that even vanished sites like this one remain part of Ireland’s rich archaeological tapestry, reminding us that beneath ordinary fields lie centuries of hidden history.