The site is classified as a belvedere, a term for a structure, often a tower or raised platform, built specifically to command a view rather than to serve any practical purpose. They were a favourite conceit of eighteenth and nineteenth century estate design, placed on high points to give landowners a theatrical vantage over their demesne. This one sat atop a natural rock outcrop, which would have lifted it further still, making the most of whatever landscape lay below. Nothing of the tower itself survives above ground.

What remains is a retaining wall that once surrounded the rock outcrop, now largely consumed by overgrowth. The wall suggests the site was finished to some degree, that the outcrop was shaped or edged into something presentable rather than left as rough ground. Belvederes of this kind belonged to the broader tradition of designed landscapes, in which landowners arranged follies, eye-catchers, and ornamental structures across their estates as much for visual effect as for use. In West Cork, as elsewhere in Ireland, these features were often modest in scale compared to the grand demesnes of the midlands or the east, but they followed the same aesthetic logic. The specific history of who built the tower at Coorycullane, and when, is not recorded in what survives.

The overgrowth that now obscures the retaining wall means the site reads as little more than a slight rise in the landscape, easy to pass without recognising it for what it was. The rock outcrop is still there, and the wall can apparently still be traced through the vegetation for those who know to look for it.