The square itself is a wide, open space characteristic of planned estate towns, but the ground beneath it holds a different kind of record.

In 2002, a test excavation was carried out as part of a pre-development archaeological assessment of a proposed building site on the eastern side of the square. What the excavation revealed was described as the remains of considerable medieval activity and settlement, indicating that this part of Dunlavin was once occupied in ways that have since been entirely erased from the surface. Deserted medieval settlements are not uncommon across Ireland, where rural depopulation, agricultural reorganisation, and later landlord-driven clearances left whole communities without trace above ground. What makes this case quietly interesting is its location not in open countryside but within a functioning town centre, suggesting that the layout and extent of medieval Dunlavin may have differed substantially from the town that exists today.