First documented on the 1836 Ordnance Survey 6-inch map and simply marked as ‘Fort’, this structure measured approximately 15 metres in diameter. When archaeologists inspected the site in the early 1980s, they found only a curved section of the original enclosing bank or wall; a 15-metre arc that stood about 2 metres wide and just 10 centimetres high. The surviving earthwork was made of soil, though the boggy, rocky terrain surrounding it suggested to researchers that this might have originally been a cashel, one of those distinctive Irish stone-walled enclosures that dot the countryside.

The site’s fate reflects the tensions between preservation and progress that characterise much of Ireland’s archaeological heritage. By the time of the 1980s survey, extensive afforestation had already begun to encroach upon the ancient enclosure. The final blow came later when quarrying operations completely destroyed what remained of the structure. Today, nothing survives of the mysterious ‘Fort’ that once stood here, its purpose and exact age now lost to time.

What makes sites like this particularly poignant is how little we truly know about them. The vague designation of ‘Fort’ on historical maps could mean anything from an Iron Age ringfort to a medieval defensive structure, or even something else entirely. The suggestion that it might have been a cashel adds another layer of possibility; these stone enclosures served various purposes throughout Irish history, from farmsteads to ecclesiastical sites. Now, with the physical evidence gone, we’re left with only the brief archaeological notes compiled by Brian Lacy in 1983 and the ghostly outline on old Ordnance Survey maps to remind us that something significant once stood in this corner of Donegal.