On the 1932 edition of the Ordnance Survey six-inch map, the site was recorded using hachures, the fine lines cartographers use to suggest changes in elevation or notable ground disturbance, enough of a mark to suggest something worth investigating. When someone finally went to look, in 1983, what they found was a disused and overgrown gravel pit, quietly returning to grass on the brow of the hill.

Gravel pits of this kind were a practical feature of rural Irish land management, dug to extract material for road-surfacing, farm tracks, or general drainage work. This one dates to after 1700, placing it firmly in the era of improving landlords and expanding road networks rather than in any earlier period of settlement. The gap between the map marking and the site visit, more than fifty years, is itself a small curiosity, a dot on paper waiting half a century for someone to come and check.