These structures are strongly associated with early Christian monasticism in the west of Ireland, where monks built them as individual cells, though some predate that period entirely. This particular example was already in poor condition when it came to the attention of researchers.

Two separate observers noted the structure: Curran, listed as number 23 in an unpublished record, and R. A. S. Macalister, who mentioned it in 1899. Macalister was one of the most active archaeological recorders of his generation in Ireland, and his noting of a site, however briefly, tends to confirm that something genuinely ancient was present. The fact that both found it poorly preserved suggests the structure had already lost much of its original form by the late nineteenth century, making it one of those sites known more through documentation than through what now stands on the ground.