Wedge tombs are the most numerous class of megalithic tomb in Ireland, characterised by a gallery that is wider and taller at one end and tapers toward the other, typically oriented with the broader end facing broadly west or south-west. The example at Drumkilsellagh belongs to this tradition, one of dozens that Seán Ó Nualláin catalogued across County Sligo alone.

Ó Nualláin's survey, published in 1989 as the fifth volume of the Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland, remains the primary systematic record for Sligo's prehistoric monuments. His fieldwork across the county documented the structural condition, orientation, and surviving stonework of each site, placing Drumkilsellagh within a broader pattern of megalithic activity in the region. Sligo has a particularly dense concentration of megalithic monuments, from the great passage tomb cemetery on Carrowmore to the court tombs of the north-west, and the wedge tombs of the county represent a later phase of that long tradition, broadly associated with the period from around 2500 to 2000 BC. Wedge tombs are found most commonly in the west of Ireland, and their distribution across Connacht and Munster suggests regional burial customs distinct from those that produced the great passage tombs further east.