They were noticed during a field survey in 1989, reported by archaeologist B. Raftery, and then left in a peculiar administrative limbo: present enough to record, ambiguous enough to resist classification. The site sits in that genuinely odd category of things that are almost something, the archaeological equivalent of a shape glimpsed just below the surface of water.

Peatlands have long been productive ground for Irish archaeology. The slow, acidic, oxygen-poor conditions of a bog can preserve organic material, including timber, leather, and human remains, for thousands of years in ways that open-air sites simply cannot. Worked wood, meaning timber showing signs of human shaping or modification, is often the first indication that a structure once existed, whether a trackway laid across marshy ground, a platform, or something more elaborate. In this case, what was found in Clooneeny in 1989 was judged insufficient to confirm the presence of an actual archaeological monument. It was noted, it was communicated, and it was filed under uncertainty.