Within its weathered boundaries once stood a church, marked on older Ordnance Survey maps but now completely absent from the landscape. The structure, recorded as a ‘Church in ruins’ on historical surveys, was positioned close to the water’s edge, not far from the imposing Doe Castle that still dominates the peninsula today.

The church’s disappearance represents a common fate for many of Ireland’s medieval ecclesiastical buildings; time, weather, and the recycling of stone for other construction projects have erased countless such structures from the physical landscape. What remains is the graveyard itself, continuing its centuries-old role as the community’s burial ground whilst the church that once served the living has been reduced to nothing more than a cartographic memory.

This site was documented during the comprehensive Archaeological Survey of County Donegal, conducted in 1983 by Brian Lacey and his team of archaeologists. Their work captured details of field antiquities spanning from the Mesolithic period through to the 17th century, preserving records of sites like this lost church that might otherwise be forgotten entirely. The graveyard at Castledoe serves as a reminder that absence can be as historically significant as presence; sometimes what’s missing tells us as much about a place as what remains.