A clochán, the term for a dry-stone corbelled hut of the kind built in early medieval Ireland, once stood here. By the time anyone thought to write it down, it was already gone.

Two researchers independently noted the ruin. Curran listed it, and R. A. S. Macalister recorded it in 1899, by which point the structure was already described as destroyed. Clocháin of this type are associated with early Christian monastic and hermitic settlement, particularly along the Atlantic seaboard of Munster, where communities of monks sought remote ground. The Dingle Peninsula holds a remarkable concentration of such remains, from the well-preserved examples on the Skellig rocks offshore to humbler, less celebrated sites scattered across the inland valleys. Gleann Fán, a quiet glacial valley running into the heart of the peninsula, would have offered the combination of shelter and isolation that suited such purposes. What stood here, how large it was, and how long it had been ruinous before Macalister passed through, is not recorded.