The Ordnance Survey’s 6-inch map from its second edition recorded this monument simply as a ‘Standing Stone’, but by the time the third edition was published, cartographers could only mark it as ‘Standing Stone (site of)’, acknowledging its disappearance. Today, no visible remains can be found at the location, leaving only historical records to tell of its former presence.

The stone’s existence and subsequent loss were documented in the Archaeological Survey of County Donegal, a comprehensive catalogue of the county’s field antiquities spanning from the Mesolithic Period to the 17th century. This survey, compiled in 1983 by Brian Lacey and his team of archaeologists, serves as an invaluable record of monuments that have been lost to time, development, or natural processes. The standing stone at Ardmore joins countless other prehistoric monuments across Ireland that have disappeared from the physical landscape but remain preserved in historical documentation.

Standing stones like the one at Ardmore were typically erected during the Bronze Age, though some date back to the Neolithic period. These monuments served various purposes; some marked burial sites, others delineated territorial boundaries, and many likely held ritual or astronomical significance for the communities that raised them. The loss of the Ardmore stone represents not just the disappearance of a physical monument, but the severing of a tangible link to the prehistoric peoples who once inhabited this coastal region of Donegal.