Clochans are corbelled structures, built without mortar by laying stones in overlapping rings that tighten inward until they meet at a rough apex, creating a surprisingly weatherproof interior from nothing more than carefully chosen flat stones. To have seven marked together suggests a settled group rather than a solitary hermitage, possibly the remains of a monastic or farming settlement making use of the peninsula's thin but workable land.

The record of this group derives from the Corca Dhuibhne archaeological survey published in 1986, a systematic effort to document the extraordinary density of early monuments along the Dingle Peninsula, a stretch of coastline and upland that contains one of the highest concentrations of early medieval and prehistoric remains anywhere in Ireland. The Irish-speaking communities of this region, known historically as Corca Dhuibhne, left behind not only clochans but ogham stones, ring forts, early church sites, and souterrains, the underground stone-lined passages associated with settlement and storage. That seven clochans at Fán warranted a specific entry in that survey speaks to their significance as a group, even if their present condition is uncertain.