Where early Ordnance Survey maps from the 19th century once marked an enclosure, today only a gentle mound, measuring between 20 and 30 metres across, suggests its former presence. This earthen structure occupied a strategic position at a bend in the river, nestled within the flood plain; a location that would have offered both defensive advantages and access to water resources.

The enclosure’s placement in the flood plain speaks to the practical considerations of its builders, whoever they may have been. Such riverside locations were commonly chosen throughout Ireland’s history for various purposes, from defensive ringforts to agricultural settlements. The earthen construction, typical of many Irish archaeological sites, would have consisted of banks and ditches that defined and protected the enclosed space within.

Whilst the physical structure has vanished from the landscape, its ghostly footprint remains visible to the trained eye. The site represents one of countless similar features scattered across Donegal’s countryside; reminders of past communities who shaped and reshaped the land over centuries. These seemingly unremarkable rises and dips in fields and pastures form part of a vast, largely hidden archaeological landscape that tells the story of human settlement in northwest Ireland.