It has been levelled, covered in peat, and would pass entirely without notice were it not for a chance discovery made while archaeologists were looking at something else entirely. That is often how these things come to light.

In September 1989, excavation work was carried out on a short cist nearby, a short cist being a small stone-lined grave box of the type typically associated with Bronze Age burial practice. The mound at Killacolla, in the barony of Shanid, was recorded in the process, sitting approximately ninety metres to the north-east of that cist. It appears in Doody's 1993 report, noted plainly as a peat-covered mound that has since been levelled. The two features, the cist and the mound, may or may not be connected in origin, but their proximity is the reason the mound was recorded at all. Denis Power compiled the site record, which was uploaded to the national database in August 2012.

There is little to see on the ground today, which is itself part of what makes the site worth thinking about. The mound has been levelled, so a visitor walking the area would find no obvious rise or earthwork to orient themselves by. What remains is largely a presence on a map and in a report, a placeholder for something that once had more physical form. The landscape around Shanid in west Limerick is quietly layered with early medieval and prehistoric remains, and the proximity of this mound to a confirmed Bronze Age cist gives it context even where it lacks drama. Anyone with a serious interest would do well to consult the Sites and Monuments Record entry for the cist, reference LI018-01102, to better understand the local cluster of features.