It had been there on the first Ordnance Survey six-inch sheet, drawn with enough confidence to give its approximate dimensions, but by the time the twenty-five-inch revision came around later in the nineteenth century it had simply been left off. No annotation, no explanation. The enclosure itself had not gone anywhere, but cartographically it had ceased to exist.

Ringforts, known in Irish as raths, were the most common form of enclosed settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically consisting of a circular or oval area bounded by one or more earthen banks and ditches. They were used as farmsteads and as places of security for livestock, and thousands survive across the country in varying states of preservation. This particular example sits on a south-west-facing slope in rough, poorly drained pasture in Kilmoylan Lower, about ninety metres south-east of Kilmoylan House, with a stream running a further forty-five metres to the south-east below it. The 1840 Ordnance Survey six-inch map recorded it as a subcircular enclosure measuring roughly thirty-two metres north-east to south-west and thirty-three metres north-west to south-east, positioned within the demesne lands of Kilmoylan House, with the walled garden of the estate immediately to its west. Why it was omitted from the 1897 revision is not recorded.

The fort has since been recovered, at least in the aerial sense. Orthophotos taken by Digital Globe between 2011 and 2013, and a Google Earth image from November 2018, both show a roughly oval, partially tree-lined enclosure on the ground, its outline clearly legible from above even if it registers as little more than a shadow of earthworks and scrubby growth at ground level. For anyone approaching on foot across the pasture, the poorly drained ground and the partial tree cover are likely the most immediately noticeable features. The site is on private land associated with Kilmoylan House, so access would require permission from the landowner. The aerial images, compiled as part of a survey record by Alison McQueen and Vera Rahilly and uploaded in July 2020, remain the clearest way to appreciate the enclosure's shape and survival.