It reads, at first glance, as nothing more than a gentle swelling in the ground, the kind of irregularity that farmers learn to work around. But the shape is deliberate, and very old. This is a cairn, a monument type built from heaped stone, typically dating to the prehistoric period, and usually associated with burial or ritual. Centuries of soil accumulation and grass growth have softened it almost beyond recognition.

What survives at Pollnamal is described as subcircular in plan, measuring roughly 15.5 metres on its longer axis and 14 metres across, rising only about 0.8 metres above the surrounding ground. Those modest dimensions tell a story of gradual attrition. The northwest section has been quarried away at some point, the stone presumably put to practical use in walls or buildings nearby, a fate that befell countless prehistoric monuments across Ireland once their original significance had faded from local memory. What remains is grassed over and poorly preserved, the underlying cairn material largely concealed beneath the sod.