The clochan, or clochán, is a type of dry-stone hut constructed using corbelling, a technique in which each course of stones projects slightly inward over the one below until the courses meet at a closed apex. No cement, no timber, no iron. The method was used across early medieval Ireland, and the Dingle Peninsula has one of the highest concentrations of surviving examples anywhere in the country, many of them associated with early Christian hermits who sought out remote or inhospitable ground as a deliberate spiritual discipline.

This particular example is circular in plan and measures roughly three metres in diameter, making it a compact structure, barely wide enough for a person to lie down across its interior. It was noted by the scholar R. A. S. Macalister in 1899, which places it within the long tradition of antiquarian attention that the Corca Dhuibhne region has attracted. Gleann Fán itself is one of the quieter valleys running into the spine of the peninsula, away from the more heavily visited sites along the coast.