Whether they predate the tradition of inscribed markers, or simply belonged to families who could not afford them, is not recorded. What is clear is that the site has been in continuous use across several centuries, and that combination of the legible and the utterly anonymous gives the place an unusual texture.

The burial ground sits on a low hill just north of a small stream on the edge of Cornacullew. It is subrectangular in shape, measuring roughly 82.5 metres northeast to southwest and 33 metres northwest to southeast. A stone wall encloses it along the southwestern to northeastern arc, while a post-and-wire fence marks the boundary where the stream runs close. Two wrought-iron gates serve as entrances, the principal one at the northeast accompanied by a stile. The memorials found here date mainly from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, but the earliest recorded inscription goes back to 1670, according to research by Lennon published in 2005, making it one of the longer-documented burial sites in the county.

Just across the stream to the southwest lie a holy well and its associated holy tree. Holy wells in Ireland were traditionally sites of localised veneration, often linked to a patron saint and visited on particular feast days, sometimes with a specific tree nearby considered sacred and hung with votive offerings. The proximity of all three elements, the burial ground, the well, and the tree, points to a clustering of devotional practice around this small watercourse that likely stretches back well before the oldest surviving inscription.