That is, in essence, how it was found: not by a field archaeologist with a trowel, but through satellite imagery, the kind of patient screen-based scrutiny that has become one of the more unlikely tools of Irish archaeological discovery.

The site is a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, a type of enclosed farmstead typically dating to the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Thousands survive across Ireland in varying states of preservation, though many have been lost to centuries of agricultural improvement. This particular example, a subcircular enclosure defined by a low bank, was identified and reported by Jean-Charles Caillère, who spotted it on Google Earth satellite imagery captured in January 2010. The surrounding land has been reclaimed as pasture, which may help explain why the site escaped earlier notice; ground that has been worked and smoothed over generations can obscure earthworks that remain just legible from above. The bank itself is the defining feature, a modest raised boundary that would originally have enclosed a domestic space, perhaps a house, outbuildings, and a small yard.