At Gorteenalomane in West Cork, a ringfort once occupied a break in a north-facing slope, its circular earthen bank enclosing a space of roughly thirty metres across. A ringfort, or rath, is a type of enclosed farmstead common across early medieval Ireland, typically consisting of a raised earthen bank and ditch surrounding a dwelling and its associated outbuildings. Thousands survive across the Irish countryside, weathered but intact. This one does not.

The enclosure was still visible enough in 1902 to be recorded on the Ordnance Survey six-inch map, marked with the hachured lines that cartographers used to indicate earthworks and raised features. Its position on a north-facing slope, with higher ground to the south and northwest limiting the outlook, suggests it was tucked into the landscape rather than commanding it. At some point between that mapping and the present, the site survived into living memory, only to be levelled in 1983. By the time any formal surface assessment could be made, there was nothing left to see. The site now sits within rough grazing land, indistinguishable from its surroundings.

What remains is essentially the ghost of a place, preserved only in cartographic record and archaeological inventory. The 1902 map becomes, in a sense, the site's only surviving monument.