The standing stone at Ballygibbon in County Cork managed something more abrupt: it simply vanished. By 2004, the stone had been removed entirely from the rough grazing land where it had stood, leaving behind no marker, no explanation, and no trace of the presence it had held for what was likely several thousand years.

The stone itself was modest but legible as a deliberate human intervention in the landscape. Measuring 1.39 metres in height, with a subrectangular cross-section roughly 0.95 metres by 0.27 metres, it was oriented with its long axis running east to west. Standing stones of this kind, single upright slabs set into the ground by prehistoric communities, are found across Ireland in considerable numbers, though their original purposes remain genuinely uncertain. They have been associated with burial, territorial marking, astronomical alignment, and ritual, often without any one explanation fitting all cases. This one stood in rough pasture in mid Cork, unremarkable in scale, until it no longer stood at all. Whether it was moved by a farmer clearing ground, salvaged for use elsewhere, or taken for other reasons is unrecorded.