A cist, in archaeological terms, is a small stone-lined grave, typically constructed to hold a single crouched body or a cremation deposit, sealed with a flat capstone called a lintel. What makes this particular spot quietly remarkable is the pairing: one cist lies open to the sky, its dimensions modest at roughly 0.9 metres by 0.65 metres, while a second, positioned on the opposite side of the same quarry, still retains its lintel intact after all this time.

Both cists sit on the perimeter of a quarry associated with a megalithic tomb at the same site, suggesting that this small area of Leitrim was once a focus of prehistoric funerary activity. The quarry itself would have been the source of stone used in constructing the tomb, and it is along its edges that these two smaller graves were placed or exposed. Whether they were always visible or only came to light as the quarry was worked is not recorded, but the survival of the lintel on the eastern cist is notable; such capstones are frequently displaced or removed over the centuries by farmers clearing land, by curious hands, or simply by the slow settling of the ground beneath them.