Aerial photographs have revealed what appears to be an early field system at this location, the kind of organised land division that, depending on its age, could represent anything from prehistoric agricultural planning to early medieval land use. On the ground, the area is now forested, which means the earthworks or boundary features that form the system are effectively obscured from ordinary observation, preserved perhaps by the very woodland that hides them.

Field systems of this kind are not uncommon in Ireland, though they are frequently overlooked precisely because they tend to survive in fragmentary or ambiguous form. They can consist of low earthen banks, stone walls, or lynchets, which are terraced steps formed by centuries of ploughing on a slope, and they often only become legible as a coherent pattern when viewed from altitude. The photographs that revealed the Gorteennameale system were recorded in aerial survey work, and the site was subsequently noted in the Archaeological Inventory of County Laois, published in 1995 and compiled by P. David Sweetman, Olive Alcock, and Bernie Moran. The classification as a possible early field system reflects genuine uncertainty; without excavation or more detailed survey, the precise date and character of what lies beneath the trees remains an open question.