Known locally in the 1840s as ‘Dermot and Grania’s Bed’, a romantic reference to the legendary lovers from Irish mythology, the site consists of what appears to be a ruined circular stone enclosure about 23 metres across. When antiquarian Thomas Fagan documented it between 1845 and 1848, he noted two prominent stone slabs; one standing upright at about 1.4 metres high, with another smaller stone leaning against it, all seemingly contained within a circular boundary of scattered stones.

The site’s true nature began to emerge during excavations in 1976, which revealed a complex history spanning thousands of years. The excavator, Kilbride-Jones, uncovered a substantial wall with rubble core and stone facing that formed the circular enclosure, complete with what appeared to be a chamber built into the southern section of the wall. At the northeast, where a gap in the wall suggests an entrance, those same two stones that Fagan had described still stand today. Kilbride-Jones proposed these might have been the sidestones of a small megalithic chamber, with evidence of sockets behind them and another socket that could have held a backstone, plus what he interpreted as a small forecourt area just in front.

The artefacts recovered during the excavation tell a fascinating story of reuse across millennia. The earliest phase of activity dates to the Neolithic period, evidenced by Western Neolithic pottery sherds and a plano-convex flint knife. Much later, perhaps in the early medieval period, the site saw renewed activity, leaving behind spindle whorls, a bone needle, and jewellery including a chlorite bracelet and ring, along with a corroded iron object. Excavators also found deposits of animal bones and shellfish remains throughout the enclosure, plus a small amount of cremated human bone, though whether this represents formal burial or some other ritual activity remains unclear. Today, largely obscured by furze bushes, the site continues to guard its secrets, with even archaeologists remaining uncertain about whether it truly contains a megalithic chamber or represents something else entirely.