The site is situated on the tidal mudflats of the estuary of the River Taw, and is currently within the nature reserve of Isley Marsh.

Near the stones, Rogers discovered flint tools and evidence indicating human occupation of the site during the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Early Bronze Age eras.

According to Charlotte Russell, an English Heritage project officer, "The [Yelland] power-station closure resulting in less discharge into the sea and less lively current, allowing sediments to settle, is one suggested cause [of the disappearing stones]."

... other factors, like silting up of the estuary in the absence of shipping, changes to railway and flood-bank construction in the area, and changes in runoff from upstream may all have played a role.

A team of archeologists, led by Dr Martin Bates from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, used geophysical surveying techniques to explore the thickly silted marsh to determine the location of the buried stones.