In the undulating pastureland of Rahard, County Galway, a hachured feature, the cartographic shorthand for a depression or earthwork, appeared on the 1933 edition of the Ordnance Survey six-inch map and sat quietly in the record for half a century, its true nature unconfirmed.

When the site was inspected in 1983, the feature turned out to be a disused gravel pit, almost certainly worked at some point after 1700. Gravel pits of this kind were commonplace across rural Ireland, dug to supply material for road-making and farm tracks, then abandoned when the workings were exhausted or no longer needed. Because this one post-dates AD 1700, it falls outside the scope of archaeological survey, which generally concerns itself with earlier remains. The 1933 map had simply recorded the hollow as it appeared on the ground, without explaining what had made it.