This one in Balteenbrack, a townland in west Cork, earns its place by having almost entirely disappeared. Listed as a standing stone, it leaves no visible trace on the ground whatsoever, raising the quiet question of whether there was ever anything prehistoric here at all.

The Ordnance Survey six-inch map of 1842 marks the location as 'Pillars', which is suggestive but far from conclusive. That word could point to a prehistoric standing stone or pair of stones, the kind of upright megalith erected across Ireland during the Bronze Age for purposes that remain genuinely debated. But it could equally describe something far more mundane. Gate pillars, the sturdy stone posts used to hang field gates on Irish farms, were sometimes substantial enough to catch a surveyor's eye, and the current assessment leaves open the possibility that this is all the 'Pillars' label ever referred to. The site lies on a west-facing slope in pasture, which suits both interpretations equally well. Without any surface remains to examine, the ambiguity simply sits there, unresolved.