The fact that several of those monuments never made it onto the Ordnance Survey maps gives the site a quietly disorienting quality; it is a place the historical record only partially noticed.

Ring barrows are prehistoric burial or ritual monuments, typically consisting of a low central mound enclosed by a circular fosse, or ditch, sometimes with an outer bank. The two examples at Cahercorney were documented by O'Kelly in 1942 to 1943, who recorded them as sitting on the eastern side of the centre line of a higher feature, one confined entirely to the north-east quadrant and a second straddling both the north-east and south-east. Their overall diameters were measured at roughly 5.5 metres and 7.3 metres respectively, making them small but structurally clear examples of the type. O'Kelly noted that the majority of the monument complex, including these two barrows, lay in a low-lying marshy area, a detail that complicates both preservation and access. Aerial photographs held by the Archaeological Survey of Ireland, taken in January 2003, show the outlines still legible from the air, and more recent Digital Globe imagery confirms that the form of the monument remains visible.

Getting a meaningful look at these features requires some patience. The marshy ground that surrounds much of the complex means that underfoot conditions can be difficult, particularly through the wetter months. Because the mounds are low and the fosses shallow, they read better from above than at ground level; consulting the aerial imagery before visiting gives a clearer sense of what to look for. The site sits within a broader archaeological landscape, and cross-referencing the National Monuments Service database using the record number LI032-073004 will bring up the full cluster, including the monuments that were never captured on older mapping.