A clochan is a dry-stone beehive hut, typically of early medieval Irish origin, built without mortar using corbelled stonework that draws each successive course of stones inward until the walls meet at the top. They are most commonly associated with early Christian monastic settlements, particularly along the Atlantic coast. This one is different in that its very existence remains unconfirmed. It was recorded in 1986, then noted again in 1995 with the cautious qualifier "possible", and a field visit in 1989 failed to find it at all.

The reason for that failure is mundane but telling: the slope was so heavily overgrown with bracken and gorse that the structure, if it is there, could not be located. That kind of vegetation, dense and sprawling across rough terrain, is entirely capable of swallowing a low stone building whole, particularly one that may already be partially collapsed or reduced to a scatter of corbelled rubble. The site sits in a landscape that does not give itself up easily, overlooking a ravine on ground steep enough to make searching it methodical work rather than a casual walk.