The site at Mitchelstowndown East belongs to that category of monument that is almost invisible at ground level, where the landscape refuses to give itself up to the casual observer, yet reveals a clear and deliberate geometry the moment you gain altitude.

The earthwork complex consists of a series of linear earthworks, essentially raised banks or ditches running in lines across the ground, arranged so as to enclose a group of three barrows. Barrows are prehistoric burial mounds, typically constructed from earth or stone heaped over one or more interments, and they appear across Ireland in considerable numbers, though rarely in such an evidently organised relationship with enclosing earthworks as this. The site came to formal archaeological attention through aerial photographs taken on the 3rd of November 1984, as part of the survey work carried out for the Bórd Gáis Éireann Curraleigh West to Limerick gas pipeline. Those photographs, catalogued under reference BGE 1/5000, image 2579, Site 248, captured the linear earthworks with enough clarity to establish the layout of the complex. Decades later, a Google Earth orthoimage dated the 20th of March 2018 confirmed that the earthworks remain visible from above, their outlines persisting in the wet ground despite whatever agricultural activity has occurred in the intervening years. The record was compiled by Fiona Rooney and uploaded to the national monuments database in September 2021.

The site sits in wet pasture, which means ground conditions will matter considerably to anyone who wants to visit. Waterproof footwear is advisable for much of the year, and the earthworks themselves may be easier to read in low winter light, when shadows fall across any surviving banks and pick out slight changes in the terrain. Because the complex is most legible from aerial imagery rather than ground level, it is worth consulting the Google Earth orthoimage beforehand to orient yourself to the layout before approaching on foot. The three barrows enclosed within the linear earthworks are what give the site its particular character; the enclosure of burial monuments within a defined boundary suggests some deliberate demarcation of funerary space, a relationship between the dead and the land around them that was clearly intended to be permanent.