That is the situation at Tooreen, in County Galway, where a ringfort occupies a prominent hill in open grassland, its outline still readable but considerably reduced by the very industry it once overlooked.

The monument is a rath, the most common type of ringfort in Ireland, typically a circular or subcircular enclosure defined by an earthen bank and ditch, used as a farmstead or defended residence during the early medieval period. At Tooreen, the rath is subcircular in plan, measuring roughly 45.8 metres northwest to southeast and 43.5 metres northeast to southwest. What survives is largely a scarp, a slope or edge in the ground rather than a standing bank, and even that has been disturbed by quarrying activity. A field bank running from the northeast around to the east adds another layer of enclosure, though whether it is contemporary with the original construction or a later addition is not recorded. Inside the enclosure, a small stone-lined rectangular depression marks the spot where quarrying cut into the interior, leaving a wound that serves as an accidental reminder of how thoroughly these sites could be dismantled when their original function was forgotten and their stone became more useful than their history.