On the summit of Ballykane Hill in County Kildare, at 398 feet above sea level, sits a burial monument that went unrecorded for the entirety of modern archaeological history, until someone finally looked closely enough.

A ring-barrow is a type of prehistoric funerary monument, typically a raised central mound enclosed by a surrounding ditch and an outer earthen bank, forming a roughly circular enclosure. The example on Ballykane Hill follows that pattern closely: excavations carried out in 2004 under licence revealed a central mound, a ditch, an external bank, and an entrance gap opening to the southwest, with an overall diameter of 22 metres north to south. What made the dig particularly striking were the finds recovered from the site. Worked flints point to activity in the Neolithic or Bronze Age, while copper-alloy fragments suggest metalworking or the presence of metal objects, consistent with later prehistoric use. The bone assemblage was varied and telling: cremated human remains confirm the site's function as a place of burial, alongside both cremated and unburnt animal bone, a mixture that archaeologists associate with ritual deposits accompanying the dead. The site had not appeared in any prior record before the 2004 excavation confirmed its existence and character.