Marked on old Ordnance Survey 6-inch maps as a ‘Standing Stone’, this ancient monument has seemingly vanished without a trace. Despite its official designation on historical cartography, modern archaeological surveys have failed to locate any remnants of what was once considered significant enough to merit inclusion on detailed Victorian-era maps.

The elusive nature of this standing stone raises intriguing questions about the landscape’s transformation over time. The area, now heavily forested, may have looked quite different when the original OS maps were drawn up in the 19th century. It’s possible the stone lies buried beneath decades of leaf litter and undergrowth, or perhaps it was removed for building materials during the intervening years; a common fate for many megalithic monuments across Ireland. The dense woodland that characterises the area today makes systematic archaeological investigation particularly challenging.

This phantom monument was documented in the comprehensive ‘Archaeological Survey of County Donegal’, compiled by Brian Lacey and his team in 1983. Their inability to locate the stone during their extensive fieldwork suggests either the original OS surveyors made an error, which seems unlikely given their typically meticulous recording methods, or that significant changes have occurred at the site since the Victorian period. The missing standing stone of Mongorry remains one of Donegal’s minor archaeological puzzles, a reminder that even in our well-documented age, traces of the ancient past can still slip away into obscurity.