What they’d uncovered turned out to be an ancient burial cist, a type of stone coffin that had lain hidden for thousands of years. The National Museum of Ireland quickly dispatched archaeologist O’Riordáin to investigate the site in January 1963, documenting what would prove to be a remarkably intact example of prehistoric burial architecture.

The cist itself is modest in size but precise in construction. Built as a rectangular stone box measuring just over half a metre from north to south and a quarter metre from east to west, it stands 36 centimetres high. Four carefully selected stone slabs were set on edge to form the walls, whilst a single oval slab served as the floor; measuring 48 by 24 centimetres and 8 centimetres thick. The entire structure was sealed with a triangular capstone nearly a metre wide, protecting the chamber beneath for millennia.

Despite the cist’s excellent preservation, the investigation revealed no trace of human remains or burial goods within the chamber. This absence isn’t particularly unusual; Ireland’s acidic soils often dissolve organic materials over time, and grave goods may have been removed in antiquity or simply never included. The cist remains an intriguing glimpse into the burial practices of Ireland’s prehistoric inhabitants, who took considerable care in constructing these stone chambers for their dead, even if the passage of time has erased all other traces of those they were built to honour.