A passage tomb is exactly what the name suggests: a burial chamber reached by a narrow stone-lined corridor, typically covered by a circular mound and oriented, in many cases, toward a significant point on the astronomical calendar. What sets Carrowmore apart from better-known complexes is the sheer compression of the landscape: monument after monument arranged across a low limestone plateau, many of them satellite tombs apparently oriented toward the great cairn of Knocknarea on the ridge to the west.

The principal scholarly account of the site comes from Seán Ó Nualláin, whose survey of the megalithic tombs of County Sligo was published by the Stationery Office in Dublin in 1989 as the fifth volume of a national survey series. Ó Nualláin's work brought systematic documentation to a complex that had long attracted attention but had also suffered considerable damage over the centuries, with many of the smaller monuments disturbed by agriculture or quarrying. The Carrowmore complex as a whole has been the subject of significant archaeological debate, particularly around questions of dating, with some researchers arguing that certain tombs here belong among the earliest megalithic monuments in Ireland, potentially predating the more famous Boyne Valley sites by several centuries.