A cist is a small stone-lined burial box, typically dating to the Bronze Age, in which a crouched body or cremated remains would have been placed before being sealed beneath the ground. The monument itself survives, but what was found around it has long since vanished without physical trace.

In the early decades of the twentieth century, peat-cutting in the area brought a number of features to light alongside the cist. Those who found them called them 'stone graves', a description passed down through local knowledge rather than formal excavation. No archaeological record was made of their contents, their precise arrangement, or the circumstances of their discovery, and today nothing of them remains visible. The bog, which had preserved them for perhaps thousands of years, gave them up only to lose them entirely once the cutting moved on. What exactly was found, who was buried there, and when, are questions the ground can no longer answer.