Most prehistoric monuments announce themselves with some presence above ground. This one barely does, its upper edges level with the surrounding bog, easy to miss entirely unless you know to look.

A cist is a type of prehistoric burial chamber, typically a box-like structure formed from flat stone slabs set on their edges to create a small enclosure in which human remains, and sometimes grave goods, were placed. This example is irregular in plan, measuring roughly 0.8 metres north to south and 0.7 metres east to west, with a depth of around 0.4 metres. The side slabs range in height from 0.35 to 0.65 metres. Some stones extend beyond the south-west and north-west corners of the structure, suggesting the original arrangement was not a neat rectangle. Loose stones and peat now lie at the base. Cists of this kind are generally associated with the Bronze Age, when individual or small-group burial in stone-lined pits was common across Ireland, though the boggy pasture at Gowlane has kept the precise context of this one largely obscured.