The grave is a cist, a type of prehistoric burial constructed from flat slabs arranged into a tight rectangular chamber, in this case barely 45 centimetres long and 19 centimetres wide, with limestone sidestones, a capstone, and a floor of paving slabs on which the cremated bone was found lying loose. It is a remarkably intimate scale for something meant to last millennia.

The cist at Ballynaboola came to light in 1978 when workmen uncovered it, along with two other graves close by, during operations at the forestry nursery. The three burials appear to have formed a loose cluster, a pattern not uncommon in prehistoric Ireland, where the dead were sometimes interred in small groups rather than in formal organised cemeteries. After discovery, this particular cist was reconstructed, though the displaced capstone now lies beside it rather than back in position. A standing stone, 2.4 metres tall and substantial in girth, was also disturbed during the same forestry work and re-erected immediately north of the reconstructed cists; its original location on the landscape is no longer known. That loss of context matters, since standing stones are sometimes associated with burial monuments, and the relationship between this one and the graves, whether it ever marked them or simply happened to stand nearby, can no longer be determined.