It is easy to mistake for a natural feature of the terrain, but it is one of two cairns, ancient funerary or commemorative stone mounds, positioned with some deliberateness at opposing corners of the graveyard, one in the south-east and a companion of nearly identical dimensions in the south-west.

The pair were identified during a University College Dublin School of Archaeology research and teaching project conducted over three seasons between 2004 and 2006. Both cairns measure roughly two metres by one and a half metres, a modest scale that makes their symmetrical placement at the corners of the graveyard all the more curious. The work was published by O'Sullivan and Warren, whose reports from 2005 and 2007 document their findings. The graveyard itself, Templefinan, carries a name that suggests early Christian associations, though the relationship between the cairns and the graveyard's longer history remains an open question.