It came to light not through deliberate excavation but as an incidental discovery during geophysical survey work in 2004, when engineers assessing the ground for a potential factory site noticed an anomaly in the data. What they eventually uncovered was a keyhole-shaped corn-drying kiln, a type of small structure widely used in early medieval Ireland to dry harvested grain before milling. The basic design involved a stone-lined bowl, where the grain was spread, connected by a narrow flue through which hot air was drawn from a fire set at the lower end. Here, the bowl measured roughly 1.5 metres in diameter and had been cut directly into the natural subsoil, with a scatter of lining stones still in place and the surrounding soil darkened by charcoal.

The investigation, carried out by Cummins and reported in 2005 and 2007, found that the charcoal-enriched deposit of the flue extended westward from the bowl, consistent with the standard keyhole layout. Perhaps more intriguing is what lies nearby. Approximately ten metres to the north-east sits a rath, the term for a ringfort, one of the most common monument types from early medieval Ireland, typically a circular enclosure bounded by an earthen bank and used as a farmstead. The close spatial relationship between the kiln and the rath strongly suggests the two were associated, and that the kiln may date from the early medieval period, roughly the sixth to the twelfth century. A second possible corn-drying kiln was identified about eight metres to the north, and a burnt spread was recorded roughly forty metres further in the same direction, hinting that this was once a site of sustained agricultural activity. The kiln was left in place pending any future development, and formal excavation has not yet confirmed its date.