The second edition of the Ordnance Survey 6-inch map shows no trace of the single-ringed enclosure that likely stood here for centuries, its earthen banks and defensive ditches now completely erased from the landscape. Today, visitors to this sloping field in An Bhealtaine Uachtarach will find only subtle hints of the site’s ancient past.

Ringforts like Ardbane were once the most common archaeological monuments across Ireland, serving as fortified farmsteads for prosperous families during the early medieval period, roughly from 500 to 1200 AD. These circular enclosures, defined by earthen banks and external ditches, protected homes, livestock, and grain stores whilst also displaying the social status of their inhabitants. The fact that Ardbane has disappeared so completely speaks to the fragility of these earthwork monuments; centuries of agricultural activity, weather erosion, and land clearance have claimed countless ringforts across the Irish countryside.

The site’s documentation comes from the comprehensive Archaeological Survey of County Donegal, compiled in 1983 by Brian Lacey and his team of researchers. This invaluable record captured details of field antiquities spanning from the Mesolithic period through to the 17th century, preserving information about sites like Ardbane that might otherwise be forgotten entirely. Whilst the physical structure may be gone, the placename endures, a ghostly reminder of the families who once made their lives within the protective embrace of this now-vanished ringfort.