Arranged in three rows, each containing two or three sunken areas measuring roughly ten to fifteen metres long and three to four metres wide, they barely register as features at all, sinking only ten to twenty centimetres below the surrounding ground. The most westerly row has been partly swallowed by vegetation spreading from a north-south field bank. Yet these unremarkable hollows are most likely the physical remains of a linen-making operation, specifically the retting of flax.

Retting was an essential and notably unpleasant stage in producing linen. Freshly cut flax stalks were submerged in water for days or weeks, allowing the fibres inside to separate from the woody outer stem through a controlled process of decomposition. Purpose-dug retting ponds, sometimes called retting holes or lint holes, were a common feature of the Irish countryside during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when linen production was a significant rural industry. The placement of these particular ponds beside a canalised stream makes practical sense; a reliable water source would have been essential for keeping them filled. The overall footprint of the site, roughly sixty metres north to south and thirty metres east to west, suggests a modest but organised working area rather than a casual or ad hoc arrangement.