The existence of a furnace as a designated monument is itself quietly telling. In Irish industrial archaeology, furnaces of this kind are most commonly associated with iron smelting or lime burning, both of which were widespread rural industries from the medieval period through to the nineteenth century. A lime kiln, for instance, was used to burn limestone to produce quicklime for spreading on acidic agricultural land, while an iron furnace might have served a more specialised metalworking operation. Without more detailed records currently available, it is not possible to say with certainty which function this particular structure served, or when it was built and by whom.

What can be said is that Clare has a long, if underappreciated, tradition of small-scale industrial activity, and that Bealkelly, like many rural townlands, would have had practical reasons to support some form of burning or smelting works. The ruined state of the structure places it in a broad category of post-medieval industrial remains that have survived in the Irish landscape precisely because they were too solid to demolish easily and too unremarkable to attract attention. The formal designation of the site as a monument at least ensures it is not entirely forgotten, even if the full details of its history remain, for the moment, out of easy reach.