It is a togher, a type of ancient trackway built across waterlogged or boggy terrain using timber, brushwood, or other organic materials laid down to create a passable surface. The one at Derrynaskea is classified as a class 3 togher, a designation that reflects its construction method and materials, placing it within a broader typology of Irish bog roads that range from simple bundles of brushwood to elaborate planked causeways.

Toghers as a category represent some of the oldest engineered routes in Ireland, with examples dating back thousands of years. They were practical solutions to the problem of moving people, animals, and goods across a landscape that was, for much of the year, effectively impassable. The Derrynaskea togher was noted during a field survey carried out in 1988, with the observation attributed to B. Raftery, a scholar closely associated with the systematic study of Irish wetland archaeology. The work formed part of a wider effort to document such features across Ireland's midland bogs before drainage, turf-cutting, and development could erase them entirely. The fact that this particular togher survives in the record at all is largely a consequence of that period of concentrated survey activity.