When the antiquarian Thomas Wright visited in 1758, he recorded an impressive fortification featuring a double fosse and triple vallum, with one defensive bank apparently constructed from stone. Most intriguingly, Wright documented and illustrated two stone buildings within the enclosure; a rectangular structure positioned in a crescent-shaped bailey and an octagonal building perched atop an oval mound, complete with detailed drawings that remain valuable historical records.

By the early 20th century, the site had already undergone significant deterioration. When Tempest examined Raskeagh Fort shortly before 1908, he could still identify the half-moon-shaped bailey mound and trace the fosse separating it from the middle vallum’s banks. Whilst he managed to locate two walls of Wright’s octagonal building, the rectangular structure had vanished entirely, leaving no visible trace above ground. This gradual disappearance of features between the 18th and 20th centuries provides valuable insight into how archaeological sites decay over time.

The fort’s levelling in the 1960s might have seemed like the end of its story, but aerial photography has revealed that Raskeagh Fort refuses to be completely erased. Cambridge University’s aerial surveys clearly show the enclosure’s footprint as cropmarks in the fields, where differences in crop growth reveal the buried ditches and banks beneath. These ghostly outlines in the landscape serve as a reminder that even seemingly lost sites can retain their archaeological signatures below the surface, waiting to tell their stories through modern survey techniques.