This elevated site near Rathmullan and Ballyboe in County Donegal offers commanding views across the surrounding rough grazing land, a strategic position that would have been highly valued by its original inhabitants.

The defensive bank that partially encloses the platform’s summit still stands in places, reaching heights of up to one metre despite centuries of weathering and neglect. Constructed from gravelly earth and stones, this earthwork has suffered considerable damage over time, with significant sections now missing along the southern and western sides. What remains, however, provides a tangible connection to Ireland’s early medieval past, when such fortified homesteads dotted the landscape.

These ringforts served as the defended farmsteads of prosperous families between roughly 500 and 1200 CE, combining practical agricultural needs with defensive considerations. The site was first formally documented in the Archaeological Survey of County Donegal, compiled by Brian Lacey and his team in 1983, which catalogued the county’s archaeological heritage from the Mesolithic period through to the 17th century. Today, this quietly crumbling monument continues to mark its place in the Donegal landscape, a subtle reminder of the generations who once called this windswept hilltop home.