It is not large, measuring roughly 4.3 metres across and just over a metre in height, and it would be easy to walk past it without registering what it is. What gives it away is the hollow at its centre, a roughly circular depression about a metre wide and sixty centimetres deep, where stones have been prised away over the years to expose a few flat slabs beneath. Those slabs hint at something more deliberate beneath the surface than a casual pile of field clearance.

This is a cairn, a type of prehistoric burial monument built by heaping stones over a grave or ritual deposit. Cairns of this kind are found across Ireland and are generally associated with the Bronze Age, though some date earlier. The Canfee example sits on the crest of its ridge facing north, with loose stones scattered downslope in that direction, likely the result of the same disturbance that opened the central hollow. The position is characteristic: elevated ground with a wide view, in this case out over the bay, was frequently chosen for such monuments, whether for reasons of visibility, symbolic significance, or both. The gorse that now obscures the outer rim has done the cairn no favours in terms of legibility, but it has also, in a way, protected what remains from further interference.