That is, in a sense, the whole story. A circle of stones, roughly six metres across, was recorded here at some point in the past, the kind of modest ring that would once have formed the base of a simple drystone dwelling. But when surveyors went looking for it, searching the area extensively, nothing was there to be seen.

The record of the site comes from a 1998 publication by Myler, who noted the remains of the stone circle measuring twenty feet in diameter. Hut sites of this type are scattered across Cork and the wider Irish landscape, low circular or oval outlines of stone that represent the footprints of ancient dwellings, often associated with early medieval or prehistoric settlement. They are easy to miss even in good conditions. At Goulacullin, the problem is more acute. The slope sits within what was, at the time of survey, a recently harvested coniferous plantation, and the working theory is that the structure lies buried beneath the accumulated debris of forestry clearance, tangled with decaying brash and new vegetation reclaiming the ground. The stones are probably still there, simply waiting beneath a layer of timber waste and regrowth for conditions to change again.