It would never have come to light had a planned quarry development not triggered an archaeological assessment of the area. What the magnetometer survey revealed was a ring-ditch, a type of monument typically defined by a roughly circular trench, or fosse, dug around a central point, often associated in Ireland with Bronze Age burial or ritual activity. Here, the fosse enclosed a central pit, the whole feature detectable not by eye but by the faint magnetic contrast it left in the soil.

The survey, carried out in 2018 by Gimson and colleagues, picked up the feature as part of a broader remote sensing programme ahead of quarry works. Magnetometry of this kind reads variations in soil magnetism caused by filled ditches, pits, and disturbed ground, allowing archaeologists to map subsurface features without lifting a spade. When subsequent testing was carried out in 2019, the surrounding area yielded no related archaeological material, and monitoring of topsoil removal across approximately 3.3 hectares to the east and south of the ring-ditches in 2020 produced similarly little. The monument itself, however, was not lost to the quarry. It has been preserved within a fallow area set aside specifically to protect it, sitting quietly in the landscape while the ground around it was stripped and taken away.