A layer of compacted oyster shells, roughly eight metres across and thirty centimetres deep, sits just beneath the turf on the south-facing slope of a small ridge, exposed where the land is slowly giving way to the elements. A midden is essentially a prehistoric or early historic rubbish deposit, most often composed of food waste, and this one at Ballinlig point is the kind of quiet, unglamorous site that tends to get overlooked in favour of more visually dramatic monuments.

The deposit is dense with oyster shells, with occasional periwinkles and cockles mixed through a dark brown soil matrix. It may extend a further six metres westward beneath the sod, meaning that what is currently visible is likely only a portion of the original accumulation. The site does not stand alone. Two hut sites lie within ten metres to the west and south-west, suggesting a small settlement once occupied this finger of land overlooking the estuary. A second midden has been recorded approximately eighty metres to the north-west, reinforcing the sense that this point was a place of sustained, if modest, human activity. Together, the shell deposits and hut platforms sketch the outline of people who harvested shellfish from the bay and estuary, ate beside their dwellings, and left their meals behind in the soil.

Ballinlig point sits at the western end of Ballysadare Bay in County Sligo, and the site is set within pasture. The exposed section is visible on the eroding eastern end of the peninsula, where the shell layer can be seen in profile. The proximity of the hut sites makes it worth taking in the wider area of the point rather than focusing on the midden alone.