It measures roughly 1.8 metres on its longer axis and 1.55 metres across, with a corbelled roof, a construction technique in which stones are laid in overlapping rings that gradually narrow until they close at the top without mortar or timber. There is a single doorway facing east. A curving wall adjoins the structure and runs a short distance outward, forming a kind of enclosure. The whole thing is built from the island's characteristic limestone, fitted together dry, and it has the look of something purely functional, made to do a specific job rather than to endure as a monument.

The job it was made to do is what makes it quietly remarkable. According to Tim Robinson's 1980 work on Inis Mór, this hut was used during the practice of straddling horses for the collection of seaweed. Seaweed, or feamainn, was essential to the Aran Islands economy for centuries, spread across the thin limestone soil to build up the cultivable land known as the fields of Aran, and harvested in quantity from the shoreline. Straddling referred to the loading of panniers or creels onto a horse's back, a process that apparently required a dedicated space, since at least two other similar structures on the island served the same purpose. The hut would have sheltered the equipment, the worker, or perhaps the horse briefly during loading, depending on how exactly the operation was carried out. It is a rare survival of agricultural infrastructure tied to a practice that was central to island life but left almost no written trace beyond a few passing references.