These places, known in Irish as cillíní, were used for centuries to inter unbaptised infants and others who, under strict ecclesiastical rules, could not be buried in holy ground. The choice of a ringfort, a circular earthwork enclosure typically dating from the early medieval period, as the location for such burials was not unusual; ancient, liminal sites already set apart from the everyday landscape were often repurposed in this way, carrying an ambiguity that made them feel appropriate for those on the margins of the sacramental world.

The site is trapezoidal in shape, measuring roughly 15.8 metres east to west and 12.5 metres north to south at its widest point. What draws the eye, according to Egan's 1960 account, is the concentration of burials gathered around a hawthorn tree at the western end of the enclosure. The hawthorn has long carried a particular significance in Irish folk tradition, associated with boundaries, the otherworld, and places not quite belonging to ordinary human settlement. Its presence here, at the heart of where the greatest number of children were laid, gives the site a quality that is less coincidental than it might first appear, suggesting a persistent layering of meaning across different periods and belief systems.