Sligo is one of the most densely packed counties in Ireland for megalithic remains, a concentration that has long intrigued archaeologists and prompted detailed fieldwork across its townlands. Megalithic tombs, broadly speaking, are large stone burial structures erected during the Neolithic and early Bronze Age periods, typically between around 4000 and 2000 BC, and they take several forms in Ireland, including court tombs, portal tombs, passage tombs, and wedge tombs, each with its own architectural logic and regional distribution.

The principal record for this site comes from Seán Ó Nualláin's systematic catalogue, published in 1989 as the fifth volume of the Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland, which covered County Sligo specifically. Ó Nualláin's survey was a landmark piece of fieldwork, methodically documenting the form, condition, and setting of megalithic monuments across the county at a time when many sites were poorly recorded or known only locally. Cloghboley itself is a townland name with Irish roots, and the presence of a megalithic tomb there fits a broader pattern across north Connacht, where Neolithic communities left a remarkable density of stone monuments across drumlin country, bogland, and hillside.