Court tombs take their name from the open, semi-circular or oval forecourt of upright stones that fronts the burial gallery, a space thought to have served some ceremonial or communal function before or alongside the act of burial. They are concentrated heavily in the northern half of Ireland, and Mayo holds a notable share of them, scattered across bogland and farmland that has swallowed much of what was once a densely settled prehistoric landscape.

The principal scholarly record for this tomb comes from Ruaidhrí de Valera and Seán Ó Nualláin, whose Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland, Volume II, covering County Mayo, was published by the Stationery Office in Dublin in 1964. De Valera and Ó Nualláin spent years systematically documenting megalithic monuments across the country, producing what remains a foundational reference for Irish prehistoric archaeology. Their Mayo volume brought together detailed fieldwork on the county's court tombs, portal tombs, and passage tombs at a time when many such sites were only loosely catalogued or known primarily through local tradition.