What was once a ringfort, the circular or oval earthen enclosure that dots the Irish countryside in its thousands, has been almost entirely levelled. All that remains at ground level is a low scarp along the south-south-west edge, a faint wrinkle in the land that most walkers would step over without a second thought.

The 1837 Ordnance Survey Fair Plan map recorded the site clearly enough, marking an oval shaped earthwork and annotating it simply as 'fort'. Ringforts, typically consisting of an earthen bank and ditch enclosing a domestic space, were built predominantly during the early medieval period in Ireland and served as farmsteads for families of some local standing. This one in Parsonstown sat in a position that would have made practical sense: the ridge offered good views to the west, which was useful whether one was watching livestock or watching for strangers. A second ringfort lies roughly 140 metres to the south-west, suggesting this part of the ridge was settled with some deliberateness. By the time aerial photography caught up with the site, in November 2011, a cropmark, the faint discolouration of vegetation above buried features that becomes legible from altitude, was barely visible in imagery from Digital Globe. It is the kind of presence that registers only when you already know where to look.