The bulldozer did its work efficiently, and it was only afterwards that anyone realised the soil had contained human remains. The discovery was accidental, as so many of Ireland's buried dead are found, and the disruption was already done before the significance of what lay underfoot became apparent.

What made the find particularly intriguing, and particularly frustrating, was the presence of large water-rolled pebbles apparently laid over the burials. The bodies seem to have been interred in an extended position, meaning laid out flat rather than crouched, and then covered with a deliberate layer of smooth stones, the kind shaped by river or coastal water over long periods. This kind of capping with stones is known from various burial traditions across prehistoric and early medieval Ireland, sometimes serving a practical function, sometimes a ritual one. But because the site was completely disturbed by the time it came to anyone's attention, the precise relationship between the stones and the human remains could not be established with any confidence. Whether the stones formed a cairn, a marker, or simply a covering laid directly over the bodies is a question the record cannot now answer.