The structure appeared on the 2nd edition of the Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, one of the detailed cartographic surveys undertaken across Ireland in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, however, no physical evidence of this ancient enclosure remains, leaving only its ghostly presence on old maps to hint at what once existed in this marshy corner of Donegal.

These types of enclosures, typically circular or oval earthworks defined by banks and ditches, served various purposes throughout Irish history. Some functioned as defended farmsteads during the early medieval period, whilst others may have been used for keeping livestock or marking territorial boundaries. The boggy location of the Lissacholly enclosure suggests it might have been strategically placed to take advantage of the natural defences provided by the surrounding wetland, though this same environment may have ultimately contributed to its disappearance.

The loss of such sites is not uncommon across Ireland, where centuries of agricultural improvement, peat cutting, and land reclamation have erased countless archaeological features. What makes the Lissacholly enclosure particularly intriguing is that it survived long enough to be mapped by the Ordnance Survey, only to disappear completely in the relatively recent past. Its story, preserved in the Archaeological Survey of County Donegal compiled by Brian Lacey and his team in 1983, serves as a reminder of how much of Ireland’s archaeological heritage exists only in historical records, with the physical landscapes themselves having been transformed beyond recognition.