The feature is a ring-ditch, a type of earthen burial monument in which a circular ditch, sometimes the remnant of a low barrow mound, defined a sacred or funerary space. This one survived largely intact until road works brought it to light.

Testing carried out by archaeologist Niall Gregory in October 2001, ahead of the N11 Newtownmountkennedy to Ballynabarny road scheme, flagged the site as having archaeological potential. Full excavation followed in May and July 2002. The ring-ditch itself had an external diameter of roughly ten metres, a ditch width averaging about one metre, and a depth ranging between 0.4 and 0.7 metres. Pottery and flint recovered from its fills were provisionally dated to the Bronze Age. What complicated the picture considerably was the presence of several later linear ditches cutting across the same ground, running east to west, at least one of which bisected the ring-ditch and truncated its central pit. A third linear ditch appeared to be broadly contemporary with the ring-ditch itself, and other ditches produced worked flint provisionally dated to the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age periods, suggesting the plateau had been in use across a considerable span of prehistory. Scattered across the same upper area were pits containing burnt stones, charcoal, ash, and burnt bone, two small circular features that overlay stake-holes cut into the bedrock, and further pits to the south-east that may have been used for cooking. On the slope running north from the main plateau, ten additional cut features were investigated, including possible post-holes and small pits, one of which yielded a flint scraper. The overall picture that emerged was of a landscape used for settlement and ritual activity from at least the Late Neolithic period onward, with aerial photography suggesting the activity continued into land further east, beyond the excavation boundary.