The site appears on early Ordnance Survey maps from the 19th century, marked simply as ‘Fort’, but today you’d be hard pressed to find any physical trace of this ancient structure. The land has been thoroughly reclaimed for agriculture, transforming what was once a defensive settlement into productive farmland that shows no hint of its former purpose.

The only evidence that remains of this lost ringfort comes from above; aerial photography captured by St. Joseph reveals cropmarks in the soil where the fort once stood. These ghostly outlines, visible only under certain conditions when crops grow differently over buried archaeological features, tell us that beneath the surface, the foundations and ditches of the fort still exist. The photograph, catalogued as ARV 52, provides archaeologists with valuable information about the fort’s original size and layout, details that would otherwise be completely lost to time.

The ringfort’s position on good agricultural land partly explains its disappearance; as farming practices intensified over the centuries, landowners naturally sought to maximise their productive acreage. This particular site was documented during the comprehensive Archaeological Survey of County Donegal, conducted by Brian Lacey and his team in 1983, which catalogued field antiquities from the Mesolithic period through to the 17th century. Their work ensures that even completely levelled sites like this one remain part of the historical record, preserved at least in documentation if not in the physical landscape.