The earliest antiquarian investigations of Chapel Hill, reported by the Archaeological Commissioners in 1878, describe the presence of graves around Keeill Vael, and excavations centred on the keeill in 1918 and the ship burial in 1944-45 also found burials. The 1918 investigations took the opportunity of excavating narrow trenches across the hilltop and the encircling banks, and recovered further evidence of burials some distance from the keeill.


The excavation of the ship burial at the east end of the hilltop by Gerhard Bersu showed that the ship had been placed above a cemetery of lintel graves, and suggested that some of the burials might have been quite recent at the time the ship was moved into position. This has led to suggestions that the cemetery was deliberately slighted, but there is no clear evidence for this assumption.