It is listed as a monument, formally recognised as a place of archaeological significance, yet the details that would ordinarily accompany such a designation remain unavailable. What it contains, how old it is, who was buried there and under what circumstances, are questions that currently have no public answer.

Burial grounds in rural Mayo range enormously in character and age. Some are early medieval cillíní, small unconsecrated enclosures used for the burial of unbaptised infants and others excluded from the churchyard. Others are the remnants of early Christian ecclesiastical sites, their churches long since vanished, leaving only the ground itself as evidence of a community that once gathered there. Still others are post-medieval in origin, attached to parishes and traditions that stretched into living memory. Without further detail, Barnastang\'s burial ground could belong to any of these traditions, which is itself a reason to find it quietly compelling.