The ground keeps its dead anonymous, and that silence is itself a kind of historical fact.

The site appears by name on the Ordnance Survey six-inch map of 1842, recorded as Scartbaun Burial Ground, which tells us at minimum that it was recognised as such by the mid-nineteenth century. The raised area measures roughly eighteen metres north to south and just under ten metres east to west, a subrectangular shape that is characteristic of early or medieval burial enclosures across Ireland. At its north-western corner there is a short run of masonry wall, only about two metres in length, and a standing stone. Standing stones in this kind of context sometimes mark boundaries, sometimes predate the Christian use of a site altogether, and their precise function here is unknown. No inscribed or shaped grave markers have been recorded anywhere within the enclosure, which may mean the burials, if they are present, were marked only with simple field stones long since lost, or perhaps never marked at all. That was common practice in certain categories of burial ground, including those used for unbaptised infants, known in Ireland as cilliní, though nothing in what is known about Scartbaun confirms that identification specifically.