Crannogs were built and occupied across Ireland from the Bronze Age well into the early medieval period, and occasionally beyond, serving as defensible homesteads whose watery moat made them difficult to approach without a boat or a causeway. The fact that one existed at Ballymartin places this quiet corner of Mayo within a pattern of lakeshore settlement that once stretched across much of the island.

Beyond its classification and location, very little detailed information about this particular site is currently available in the public record. What can be said is that Mayo contains numerous examples of crannog construction, reflecting the county's abundance of small lakes and loughs, and that many such sites survive today as low, reedy islands that betray their artificial origins only on close inspection or through survey work. The Ballymartin example is recorded as a monument, which means it has been identified and noted, even if the fuller picture of its age, construction, and history of occupation remains to be documented in accessible form.