Brick kilns, for those unfamiliar with the term, were structures in which shaped clay bricks were fired at high temperatures to harden them for use in construction. Finding one in this part of Limerick is a reminder that the building trade in rural Ireland was rather more locally organised than the finished walls of Georgian farmhouses and estate buildings might suggest.

The site came to light not through dedicated heritage survey but as a consequence of large-scale infrastructure work. Graham Hull carried out the excavation under licence reference 02E0557, as part of Bord Gáis Éireann's Pipeline to the West project, one of those major linear developments that, by cutting through long undisturbed ground, has repeatedly turned up archaeological material that would otherwise have gone unrecorded. The findings were published in Grogan, O'Donnell, and Johnston's 2007 volume, which drew together the archaeological results from that pipeline corridor. Beyond the approximate date range and the identification of the kiln and its production area, the documentary record for this particular site is sparse, which is itself telling: small industrial operations of this kind were rarely well documented, run as they were by local craftsmen or estate workers whose output was practical rather than prestigious.

Because the site was uncovered during pipeline construction rather than preserved as a managed heritage location, there is no formal public access point or interpretive signage at Dollas Upper. The physical remains, to the extent they survive, lie in agricultural land, and any visit would require both local knowledge and landowner permission. For those researching rural industry in the region, the published account in Grogan, O'Donnell, and Johnston 2007 remains the most reliable source of detail. The site is most usefully approached as part of the broader story of the Pipeline to the West excavations, which collectively documented an unexpectedly varied range of archaeological sites across the Irish midlands and west.