They were found inside a ringfort, a type of enclosed Early Medieval farmstead defined by an earthen bank and outer ditch, and they were not alone: alongside them, excavators uncovered a souterrain, bone combs, animal bones, and a leather-scoring tool of iron. The skeletons are oriented NNE-SSW, positioned to the northeast of the souterrain, and the quiet specificity of those grave goods has puzzled researchers ever since.

The site sits in pasture in an area known locally as Óenach Clochar, roughly 115 metres east of the townland boundary with Mitchelstowndown North. The antiquarian T. J. Westropp, writing between 1917 and 1919, described Óenach Clochar as an ancient Celtic landscape of considerable significance, comparing it to Tara, Telltown, and Brugh na Bóinne in County Meath, as well as to nearby Knockainey Hill. The ringfort itself was excavated in 1966 by the Swedish archaeologist Marten Stenberger, who opened about four-fifths of the enclosure and cut three sections through the bank and fosse. At the centre of the interior, he identified the remains of a possible round hut with a north-west-facing entrance and a hearth radiocarbon-dated to approximately AD 520. A souterrain, an underground stone-lined passage used for storage or refuge, was found abutting the inside of the southern bank, oriented NNW-SSE. A second hearth within the souterrain produced bone combs, animal bones, and the iron leather-scorer. Radiocarbon dates from postholes at the souterrain entrance placed its use between roughly AD 520 and AD 690.

The ringfort remains visible in the landscape and can be identified on aerial imagery. The site lies in working pasture, so access is a matter of courtesy and landowner permission rather than any formal pathway. The earthworks of the bank and fosse are the most legible features from ground level, while the interior gives little away without knowing what Stenberger's trenches revealed beneath the turf. For anyone with an interest in Early Medieval Ireland, the wider Óenach Clochar area rewards attention as much as the individual site; Westropp's comparison to the great ceremonial landscapes of Meath was not made lightly.