The site first appeared on Ordnance Survey maps between 1847 and 1849, when surveyors documented what locals called a ‘grave’. At that time, only two substantial stones survived: an upright slab measuring roughly 12 feet long and a foot and a half high, with another stone of similar dimensions lying flat across what was believed to be the burial site.

The mystery of this possible tomb deepened when the local landowner, a Mr Hart, ordered excavations at the site during the mid-19th century. The dig yielded human bones, lending some credence to the theory that this was indeed an ancient burial place. However, by the time archaeologists like William Borlase catalogued the site in 1897, and later when Seán Ó Nualláin surveyed it in 1983, the physical evidence had already vanished, leaving only these historical accounts.

Whether this was truly a megalithic tomb remains uncertain; the scant evidence makes it impossible to determine its original form or date. It could have been a portal tomb, court tomb, or another type of prehistoric monument entirely. The site now exists only in the archaeological record, recorded in the Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland and marked as site 25:45 in both the Sites and Monuments Record and the Record of Monuments and Places, a phantom monument that reminds us how much of Ireland’s ancient heritage has been lost to time.