Field boundary, Cashel, Gleneely, Co. Donegal

What was initially recorded as a possible megalithic tomb in the 1987 Sites and Monuments Record has since become something of a mystery. The 1995 Record of Monuments and Places went a step further, specifically identifying the site as a court tomb; a type of Neolithic burial monument typically featuring a semi-circular court area leading to one or more burial chambers.

However, when archaeologists returned to properly survey the location, they found no trace of any megalithic structure whatsoever. Instead, what they discovered were several large stones that appeared to be nothing more than part of an old field boundary. This isn't entirely unusual in Irish archaeology, where centuries of agricultural activity have often repurposed ancient stones for practical uses like walls and fences, sometimes making it difficult to distinguish between prehistoric monuments and more recent rural infrastructure.

The site's ambiguous status highlights one of the ongoing challenges in Irish archaeological surveying: distinguishing between genuine prehistoric remains and later agricultural features that might incorporate older materials. Whether these stones once formed part of a Neolithic tomb that was dismantled for building materials, or whether they were always simply field markers, remains unknown. The location was documented in Eamon Cody's comprehensive 'Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland, Volume VI', published in 2002, which catalogued both confirmed and disputed megalithic sites across County Donegal.