A souterrain, an underground passage or chamber typically associated with early medieval settlement and used variously for storage, refuge, or ventilation of adjacent dwellings, lies here in complete obscurity, not because it was forgotten, but because the ground above it gave way around 1940 and was promptly filled back in. No surface trace remains.

The story of how this site came to be known at all is almost entirely a matter of local memory. At some point in the twentieth century, ground collapse revealed the presence of the souterrain, and someone, or several people, noticed. Then it was backfilled almost immediately, and the landscape closed over it again. The location, on the lower north-facing slope of Lackawee at the northern end of Slieve Miskish, is specific enough to suggest that the knowledge of what lies there was passed on with some care, even if the structure itself was never properly recorded. Souterrains in Ireland are generally associated with early medieval ringforts or settlement sites, and their presence in remote upland areas of West Cork is not unusual, though most are at least partially accessible.

There is nothing here for a visitor to see. The site has no visible surface trace, and the surrounding terrain would give no indication that anything lies beneath it. What remains is the fact of the place, a named location on a hillside, carrying an archaeological record with almost no content except the knowledge that something was once briefly visible and then was not.