When a sand and gravel quarry began stripping soil at Corbally in County Kildare in 2001, the groundwork exposed something that had been waiting quietly beneath the surface for centuries: a small, nearly circular enclosure containing five human burials. The site is not marked by any monument visible from the road, nor is it the kind of discovery that draws visitors. It came to light only because archaeological monitoring was in place during the quarry's development, a requirement that has, over the decades, turned industrial groundworks across Ireland into an unlikely engine of discovery.

The enclosure itself was modest in scale, roughly 11.5 metres north to south and 11.25 metres east to west, defined by a shallow fosse, that is, a ditch, no more than 0.4 metres deep and about 1.6 metres wide. What the fosse contained was more suggestive than its dimensions alone: quantities of animal bone, some of it butchered, and an iron spear-point. Two opposing entrances broke the circuit of the ditch, one to the east, flanked by post-holes that once held timber uprights, and one to the west with a single possible post-hole. At the centre of the interior lay one burial in particular that set it apart from the others: a grave-cut completely lined with closely set pebbles, the body apparently wrapped in a shroud, a conclusion drawn from the collapsed positions of the feet, legs, arms, and shoulder blades. The four remaining burials, which may also have been shrouded, had either partial pebble lining or none at all. Among the five individuals were three adults or adolescents and two children aged roughly five to seven years old. The excavation was carried out under licence by Tobin in 2001, and the combination of the structured grave, the faunal remains, and the iron spear-point suggests a site of some social significance, though its precise date and cultural context remain open questions.