A rescue excavation carried out over three days in early April 1998 recovered the remains of nine individuals in total, though only four were clearly visible and properly in situ by the time archaeologists arrived. The orientation of those four burials pointed towards a Christian tradition of interment, east to west, and their modest number, along with the absence of any ecclesiastical structure nearby, led the excavating archaeologist to conclude that this was most likely a family burial ground rather than a formal parish cemetery. No artefacts were recovered that might anchor the site to a particular century. What the excavation could not answer in bone and soil, local place-name evidence hinted at obliquely. A field to the east of the burials had long been known as the Coilean field, a name that may derive from cilleen, the Irish term for a small, unconsecrated burial ground, often used historically for unbaptised infants or others excluded from churchyard burial. If that interpretation holds, it suggests a folk memory of the site persisting in the landscape long after the burials themselves were forgotten. A separate enclosure identified roughly 148 metres to the south may also be connected to the burial ground, though the relationship between the two features remains unresolved. The gravel that sealed everything sat just beneath the surface, and beyond a single disarticulated bone fragment found immediately south of the main cluster, further stripping of topsoil in the surrounding area revealed no additional remains.