At Downmacpatrick, near Kinsale in County Cork, there is an enclosure that carries a formal preservation order under the National Monuments Acts, yet anyone walking the ground today would find nothing visible to preserve. The site has effectively become a monument to its own absence.

The enclosure was recorded in 1983 by David Sweetman and Muiris de Buitléir of the National Monuments Service. An enclosure in this context typically refers to a defined area bounded by an earthen bank, ditch, or stone wall, the kind of feature that might mark an early settlement, a farmstead, or a ceremonial space. The site sits within the grounds of Old Head Golf Links, and its existence came back into focus in 2012 when an archaeological assessment was carried out in connection with proposed works near the thirteenth hole. That assessment noted plainly that no trace of the feature remained on the ground. The preservation order, issued in 1978, predates even the 1983 survey, which means the monument was already considered significant enough to protect before it was formally documented, and it has since vanished regardless.