They are not large, each roughly twelve and a half metres east to west, under six metres across, and just over a metre in height, but their paired arrangement and the possible traces of stone revetment between them at the western end suggest something more deliberate than a natural formation. That they have attracted so little wider attention is perhaps a consequence of their proximity to one of the island's more famous monuments.

Geologist and antiquarian George Henry Kinahan noted in 1869 a feature he described as an ointigh with an attached kitchen-midden lying to the north of Dún Chonchúir, the large stone fort that dominates the centre of Inis Meáin, and these mounds are thought to be what he was referring to. An ointigh is an ancient dwelling or sleeping place, essentially a covered or sunken structure associated with early habitation, while a kitchen-midden is simply a mound of domestic refuse, the accumulated shells, bones, and discarded material of people eating and living over generations. Such middens are invaluable to archaeologists because they preserve organic material that stone structures alone cannot. Whether the mounds represent the physical remains of that dwelling and its associated refuse heap, or something else entirely, remains an open question; the identification rests on Kinahan's nineteenth-century observation and the site's position relative to the fort rather than on any excavation.