Lithic scatters are exactly what they sound like: concentrations of worked stone, usually the debris left behind when prehistoric people knapped flint to make tools. They survive not as monuments but as fragments, turning up when ploughs break the topsoil and bring buried material to the surface, where a careful fieldwalker can spot them.

The flakes at Coolbeg came to light during just such a fieldwalking survey, conducted across ploughed land situated roughly six kilometres from the Wicklow coast. The find was attributed to the work of Professor F. Mitchell and Professor P. Woodman, two figures central to the study of Irish prehistory and early human settlement. The coastal proximity is worth noting: many of Ireland's earliest inhabitants hugged the shoreline, exploiting marine resources before gradually moving further inland, and sites a few kilometres from the coast often sit at the edge of that pattern of movement. Flint itself is not native to Wicklow's geology in great quantities, which means even small quantities of worked flint can hint at exchange, travel, or the deliberate collection of raw material from elsewhere.