The example at Tirboy, in County Galway, is among the many such structures that survive, at least in some form, across the townlands of Connacht. These kilns were used to dry harvested grain before milling, a practical necessity in a wet climate where damp corn could not be ground efficiently. Typically built from stone and shaped around a flue and drying floor, they were a central part of any farming community's infrastructure from the early medieval period right through to the nineteenth century.

The townland name Tirboy, likely derived from the Irish meaning yellow land, suggests the kind of light, possibly sandy or limestone-influenced ground that characterised tillage areas in parts of Galway. Corn kilns in such locations would have served local farming households, drying oats or barley that formed the basis of both food and trade. As the nineteenth century progressed and industrialised milling became more accessible, the need for individual townland kilns declined, and most fell gradually into disuse and disrepair. What remains at Tirboy stands as a physical trace of that older agricultural rhythm, when each community managed its own grain from field to floor.