The mid-19th-century Ordnance Survey maps clearly marked a circular enclosure, likely a ringfort, sitting atop a low hill with good farmland all around. Yet by the time the second edition of the OS 6-inch map was produced, this feature had disappeared from the cartographic record, and no other available maps show any sign of it.

The site came under archaeological scrutiny in 2007 when plans for a new bungalow brought it close to the recorded location of this enigmatic enclosure, designated as DG070–028 in the archaeological inventory. Two separate investigations were carried out that year; first, Anne Carey conducted a geophysical survey and test trenching at a nearby house site to the southeast, whilst Eoin Sullivan from Gort Archaeology examined the main development area under licence 07E1175. Sullivan’s team dug five test trenches across the site, each revealing the same simple stratigraphy: shallow topsoil over orange-brown subsoil, with undisturbed natural slate beneath. Despite the thorough investigation, no archaeological features or artefacts emerged from the excavations.

The absence of any physical evidence raises intriguing questions about what the original map-makers saw or thought they saw on this Donegal hillside. Was there once a ringfort here that was completely levelled by agricultural improvements? Did the cartographers mistake natural features for human-made earthworks? Or perhaps they recorded local memory of a structure that had already disappeared by their time? Whatever stood here, if anything ever did, has left no trace in the ground for modern archaeologists to find, making this one of those tantalising cases where historical maps preserve the only record of a feature that may or may not have existed.