The cairn, a subcircular mound measuring roughly 26 metres across and 3.5 metres high, has been robbed and disturbed over the centuries, stones carried off for more practical purposes. It is this last act of removal that produced the site's most remarkable chapter.

In 1907, labourers quarrying the mound for field wall material broke into a cist in its south-eastern sector. A cist is a small stone-lined grave box, typically Bronze Age, built from slabs set on edge to form walls, with further slabs used as floor and lid. This one, just 1.4 metres long and 0.6 metres wide, was made from four undressed sandstone flags and rested on top of the original cairn material rather than being dug into the ground beneath it. Inside were cremated bones and a collection of objects that speak to the burial customs of the early Bronze Age: an Irish Vase, a type of decorated ceramic vessel associated with this period, fitted with a lid; a miniature cup; a bronze dagger and awl; and a single quartz pebble. The finds were documented by Costello in 1908 and later discussed by the archaeologist John Waddell, who worked extensively on Irish Bronze Age burial traditions. Two further flags set on edge within the cairn to the north-north-west may indicate a second cist, though this was never formally excavated. An earthwork of a different kind lies just 40 metres to the north-east, suggesting the ridge held some broader significance in the prehistoric landscape.