When archaeologist Cahill from the National Museum of Ireland arrived to investigate, they discovered a small rectangular stone chamber measuring just 1.27 metres east to west and 0.8 metres north to south. The ancient builders had constructed this burial vault with remarkable precision, using four stone slabs set on edge to form three of the walls, whilst the western side featured an unusual design of four flat slabs stacked atop one another. A single large paving stone formed the floor, and the entire structure was capped with a stone slab that had protruded slightly above ground level, waiting millennia to be rediscovered.

Inside this compact tomb, archaeologists found two well-preserved pottery vessels; a ribbed bowl and a constricted bowl, one placed at each end of the cist. These Bronze Age ceramics had survived intact alongside the cremated remains of their owners, an adult of unknown sex and a juvenile, whose bones had been carefully placed on the floor slab. Though the burial had been somewhat disturbed over time, the remains still told their story through modern scientific analysis.

Radiocarbon dating of the carbonate material revealed that this burial took place between 2210 and 1920 BC, placing it firmly in Ireland’s Early Bronze Age period. This era saw the widespread adoption of individual burial practices across Ireland, with small stone cists like this one becoming the preferred method for interring the cremated dead alongside their prized pottery vessels. The Bohullion Upper cist stands as a testament to the care our ancestors took in commemorating their dead, creating monuments that would endure for thousands of years beneath Irish soil.