Wave action and erosion have cut through a bank of dark sandy soil and exposed, in cross-section, a compressed layer of shells, fish bones, and fire-cracked stones that stretches intermittently for around twenty metres. The deposit is only twenty to thirty centimetres thick, sealed beneath a thin cap of sand and sod, and its base is largely hidden by loose boulders thrown up by the sea itself. It is easy to walk past without realising what you are looking at.

What the shoreline has revealed is a midden, the accumulated kitchen refuse of a community that once ate here. Middens, essentially ancient rubbish heaps, are among the most informative deposits an archaeologist can encounter. The shells at Inishkea North are predominantly limpets and periwinkles, the kind of shellfish gathered by hand from rocky shorelines, supplemented occasionally by fish. The fire-cracked stones suggest cooking, likely the heating of water by dropping hot stones into vessels, a technique common before metal pots became widespread. The site lies just eight metres south of a graveyard on the same island, a proximity that hints at an established settlement in this spot, though the notes do not specify a date or associated community. Inishkea North, known in Irish as Inis Gé Thuaidh, was inhabited until 1931, when the remaining islanders were evacuated to the mainland following a tragedy in which ten young men drowned during a sudden storm.

The midden is a designated National Monument in state ownership. Its exposure in the eroding shoreline section means it is visible rather than buried, though the loose boulders piled at the base of the section by successive storms obscure its lower extent. It is a quiet and physically unassuming site, the kind that rewards those who already know where to look.