Portal tombs, sometimes called dolmens, are among the oldest monument types in Ireland, generally dating to the Neolithic period and thought to have served as communal burial chambers. This one is ruined, but not entirely gone, and what survives is enough to read its original form.

According to the survey carried out by Ruaidhrí de Valera and Seán Ó Nualláin in 1972, the tomb originally opened to the south-east, a common orientation for portal tombs, which are typically aligned to catch the rising sun or to face outward across a significant landscape feature. Of the structure, three stones remain: the northern portal stone, the adjoining sidestone beside it, and the backstone to the west, which has tilted inwards over time and now rests against the sidestone. Faint traces of a low earthen mound, the kind that would once have covered or partially enclosed the chamber, survive to the north and west of the stones. The tomb stands on the crown of a low ridge near the western end of the peninsula, a position that would have made it visible across the surrounding land, which is itself a quality often associated with how these monuments were deliberately placed in the Neolithic landscape.

The site sits in a part of Connemara where the terrain is rugged and the roads are narrow, and the peninsula above Clifden Bay is not heavily visited. The monument is small and fragmentary enough that without knowing what to look for, the three leaning stones could easily be passed over as natural outcrop.