What is known comes down to a single moment: a plough struck a flagstone, someone peered into a cave below, and then the opening was filled in again. That is essentially the whole story, at least as far as the surviving record goes.

The incident was noted by Hartnett in 1939, who gathered the account from local information rather than direct observation, recording it at page 208 of what appears to have been a survey of the area. The souterrain, if that is indeed what was found, sits within or near a possible ringfort, a type of enclosed farmstead that was common across Ireland during the early medieval period, roughly the fifth to twelfth centuries. Souterrains were frequently built in association with ringforts, used variously for storage, refuge, or both, and were constructed by roofing stone-lined passages with large flat slabs, precisely the kind of flagstone a plough might unexpectedly catch. Whether the feature at Scarteen was modest or substantial, single-chambered or branching, is simply not recorded. It was found, briefly glimpsed, and covered over.

Today there is no visible surface trace of any of it. The ringfort itself is listed only as possible, meaning even its outline has not been confirmed on the ground. This is a place that exists almost entirely as an absence, a gap in the soil that was opened once and quietly closed.