The discovery was made in the course of archaeological work carried out ahead of construction, a now-standard requirement in Irish urban contexts where development ground frequently conceals centuries of stratified occupation. The timbers were found south of Mary's Abbey, and their position suggested that the revetment had been built perpendicular to the River Liffey rather than running parallel to its bank. That orientation points towards a deliberate engineering purpose, most likely the creation of a jetty-like projection or a channel management feature extending out into or towards the river. H. Kehoe, writing in 2006, interpreted the find as part of a broader riverine revetment associated with the medieval waterfront in this part of the city. Mary's Abbey itself was a Cistercian monastery founded in the twelfth century, and the surrounding area would have been closely tied to the commercial and tidal rhythms of the Liffey during the medieval period, when the river's edge lay considerably further north than it does today.

There is nothing visible above ground at the site now. The significance of this find lies entirely in what the excavation record preserves. For anyone with an interest in Dublin's buried medieval landscape, the published report by H. Kehoe offers the clearest account of the timbers and their probable function. The wider Mary's Abbey area rewards a slow walk, since the chapter house of the medieval monastery survives nearby in a remarkable state of preservation, accessible from Meetinghouse Lane.