In 2002, archaeologists monitoring topsoil removal during construction of the Bord Gáis Éireann Pipeline to the West project, roughly 11km east-north-east of Moate in Co. Westmeath, noticed fragments of burnt and unburnt human and animal bone scattered across a wide area on the plateau of a low hill. What they had stumbled upon was a site occupied, abandoned, and reoccupied across several thousand years, with two small corn-drying kilns sitting quietly inside an enclosure that had begun its life far earlier. Corn-drying kilns, typically keyhole-shaped structures used to dry harvested grain before milling or storage, are a common enough find on early medieval Irish sites, but rarely do they appear so layered with prior and subsequent use.

Excavation by Angela Wallace, on behalf of Margaret Gowen and Co. Ltd, revealed the earliest activity to be a crouched inhumation, a burial in which the body was drawn into a foetal position, associated with sherds of a decorated vase identified by A.L. Brindley as belonging to the Early Bronze Age vase tradition, dating to between approximately 2100 and 1900 cal. BC. Encircling the hilltop was a ditch with an internal diameter of around 48 metres, its eastern side interrupted by an entranceway marked by three post-holes. Large quantities of animal bone filled its upper levels. The two keyhole-shaped corn-drying kilns were built within this enclosed area at a later date; one of them, F128, was cut into deposits interpreted as upcast material from the ditch itself, confirming it came after the enclosure. A pit associated with the other kiln, F41, produced a metal strap-end, an iron knife, and a possible candle or rushlight-holder. Most strikingly, an infant burial was later inserted into the flue of kiln F128, the narrow channel that fed air to the fire. The site also contained a medieval burial ground, adding yet another layer. The closest parallels identified by the excavators are early Christian and medieval cemetery enclosures elsewhere in Ireland, including Kilpatrick in Co. Westmeath, where corn-drying kilns and a bullaun stone, a large stone with a rounded hollow used for grinding or ritual purposes, were found in a similar cemetery setting, and Killederdadrum in Co. Tipperary, which yielded comparable finds in an analogous context.