A rath, for context, is a roughly circular earthen enclosure typical of early medieval Ireland, often enclosing a farmstead or small settlement. What turned up inside this one was not quite a dwelling and not quite an industrial site, but possibly something in between. The absence of a complete plan meant no one could say with confidence exactly what the structure had looked like, and that ambiguity has lingered ever since.

Excavations were carried out in 1950 by Ó Ríordáin and Mac Dermott, who uncovered a setting of stones alongside a thick deposit of charcoal. The charcoal alone might suggest a hearth, but the accompanying evidence pointed towards something more specialised. Burnt and glazed clay was recovered from the site, along with fragments of crucibles, the small ceramic vessels used for melting metal at high temperatures. Taken together, these finds led the excavators to suggest the structure may have functioned as a metalworking workshop rather than, or perhaps as well as, a domestic space. Early medieval Ireland had a strong tradition of skilled metalwork, and the idea of a craftsman operating within the protected enclosure of a rath is not unusual, though finding the physical traces of such activity is far rarer than the historical record might suggest.