The tomb is one of two surviving examples of what may have been a somewhat greater number of the type dispersed along a short stretch of Atlantic coastline in north-west Ireland. Perched on a sea-cliff, it consists of a megalithic gallery in the surviving southern half of a kerbed round mound, the original height of which is not known. The northern half of the mound has been lost to coastal erosion and the decision to excavate arose from the ongoing threat to the monument from the sea. 

The primary use-phase of the monument was shown to be of Middle Neolithic date.

The report concludes with a discussion of the results of the excavation, its Middle Neolithic context, factors that may have influenced the choice of location for the monument, aspects of the tomb construction process, burial rite and material culture.  This section finishes with a consideration of the place of the Maghercar tomb in the passage tomb tradition looking at aspects of the chronology, distribution and morphology of the type.