What they also found, somewhat quietly alongside the main event, were three burials, each containing cremated human remains and coarse pottery vessels of the same Late Bronze Age period.

The discovery was reported by Raftery in 1973, placing the finds within the broader excavation of Rathgall hillfort. The pottery described as coarse is characteristic of the Late Bronze Age in Ireland, typically hand-formed, thick-walled, and fired at relatively low temperatures; it often accompanied the dead as a container for cremated bone or as an offering placed within the grave. Finding three such burials in close proximity to a hillfort is not unusual in itself, as these large enclosed settlements frequently had associated funerary activity in their immediate landscape. What makes the Rathgall burials quietly significant is the way they anchor the human cost and ritual life of a community that was, at its peak, operating a substantial bronze-working industry within the fort's ramparts. The hillfort itself covers a considerable area and shows evidence of metalworking on a scale that suggests it was a place of some regional importance during the Late Bronze Age, roughly the period between 1200 and 600 BC.