At Ballycor in County Westmeath, a ringfort once occupied the crest of an elongated natural hillock, its oval earthworks clearly legible on the Ordnance Survey six-inch map of 1837, annotated simply as "Fort" on the accompanying Fair Plan. Ringforts, which are roughly circular or oval enclosures defined by one or more earthen banks and ditches, served as farmsteads and small defended settlements during the early medieval period in Ireland, and thousands of them are scattered across the country. This one, measuring approximately 34 metres along its north-east to south-west axis and 27 metres across, was a modest but recognisable example of the type. By 1970, it was gone. A visit that year found no surface remains whatsoever, and the site today shows only modern cultivation ridges and agricultural banks that follow no coherent or ancient plan.

What makes Ballycor quietly instructive is the contrast between its visibility in the nineteenth century and its complete absence now. The hillock itself remains, running roughly north-north-east to south-south-west through gently undulating pasture with some poorly drained hollows nearby, and the position would have commanded good views in all directions, which is typical of ringfort placement across the Irish midlands. The earthworks that once defined the fort's perimeter were, at some point between 1837 and 1970, ploughed or levelled out of existence. Aerial photography confirms there is nothing left to detect even from above. The landscape has absorbed it entirely, leaving only the natural topography that made the spot worth choosing in the first place.