Corleck Hill was a major religious centre during the late Iron Age and continued in use as such for the celebration of the Lughnasadh, a pre-Christian harvest festival.

Its age and significance was realised in 1937 by the local historian Thomas J. Barron and Adolf Mahr, then director of the National Museum of Ireland, which acquired it that year; it is usually on display there.

[1][2] While the exact find spot is unknown,[3] it was probably on Corleck Hill in the townland of Drumeague, the site of a large c. 2500 BC passage grave that was then under excavation to make way for farming land.

[6][7] The local historian and folklorist Thomas J. Barron recognised the Corleck Head's age and significance after seeing it in 1934 while a researcher for the Irish Folklore Commission.

He interviewed Emily Bryce, a relative of the Halls, who remembered childhood visits to the farm and throwing stones at the head, having no idea of its age.

[12] The literary evidence indicates that the hill was a significant druidic (the priestly caste in ancient Celtic cultures) site of worship during the Iron Age,[13][14] and was traditionally known as once being "the pulse of Ireland".

[24][30] One has heavy eyebrows, and another has a small hole at the centre of its mouth, a feature of unknown significance found on several contemporary Irish stone heads and examples from England, Wales and Bohemia.

[21] The Corleck Head is widely considered the finest of the Celtic stone idols, largely due to its contrasting simplicity of design and complexity of expression.

[29][3] In 1962 the archaeologist Thomas G. F. Paterson wrote that only the triple-head idol found in Cortynan, County Armagh, shares features drawn from such bare outlines.

According to Paterson, the simplicity of the Corleck Head indicates a degree of sophistication of craft absent in the often "vigorous and ... barbaric style" of other contemporary Irish examples.

[17][42] These include a three-faced stone bust from Woodlands, County Donegal, and two carved triple heads from Greetland in West Yorkshire, England.

[4][43] The Iron Age dating has been challenged by the archaeologist Ian Armit, who points out that there was a folk art revival of stone head carvings in the 17th- or 18th-centuries.

[21] Archaeological evidence suggests a complex and prosperous Iron Age society in the Corleck area that assimilated many external cultural influences.