In 1987, workmen digging near the Market Yard in Ballyshannon lifted a section of old road to lay new pipework. Beneath it, they uncovered a large flat stone – smooth, circular and unlike anything they expected to find. Some described it as resembling part of a pagan altar. Carved into the centre was a deep imprint, roughly the shape of a hoof.

At first, the men treated it as a curiosity. They took photographs, and a few tried chiseling pieces from the edge as souvenirs.

What followed changed their minds.

One worker later found his car upside-down in a ditch outside Bundoran. There were no skid marks, no sign of impact – yet the windscreen was smashed and seaweed was discovered tangled inside the engine bay.

A second worker, who had taken a rubbing of the carving, fell from a ladder at home and broke both his legs.

A third began waking with scratches on his back and reported vivid nightmares of something standing over him, pushing the air from his lungs.

Word spread. Work halted.

The stone was lifted away by the council for safe keeping, but according to local accounts, one of the supervisors – Patrick Curran – secretly took it home. Trouble followed him too. Birds began striking his windows at night. His dog vanished without a trace.

On the final evening, Patrick was found kneeling in his garden, staring at nothing, blood seeping from the corners of his eyes, clutching a crucifix so tightly it snapped in two. He was hospitalised and, locals say, never spoke of the stone – or much else – again.

Since then, the stretch of road where the stone was unearthed has reportedly resisted repair. It has been dug up and repaved several times, yet machinery breaks down, schedules slip and crews refuse to return.

In the end, the council rerouted the pipe altogether and sealed off the original footprint. Today, it forms part of a pedestrian path behind derelict shopfronts – a place most pass through without realising what lies beneath.

Even now, stories persist.

A street artist spray-painting nearby in 2019 claimed he heard someone breathing just behind him, though the lane was empty. Others speak of phones dying suddenly, tools freezing or the unsettling knock of three slow raps, though there is nobody there.