The structure was identified from Digital Globe imagery dated between 2011 and 2013, and subsequently reported to the National Monuments Service by Ros Ó Maoldúin. It is classified as a possible hut site, the kind of modest sheltered space that would have served as a dwelling or working area, its walls built from the same stone that covers the hillside around it.

What makes the find particularly interesting is its context. The enclosure sits within the bounds of Cappanawalla hillfort, a much larger prehistoric monument occupying the high ground of the same hill. A hillfort is broadly understood as an enclosure defined by earthworks or stone walls built at an elevated position, typically during the Iron Age, though Irish examples vary considerably in date and function. The smaller structure inside it may represent a later reuse of the hillfort's interior, or it may be broadly contemporary with the larger enclosure; at present, without excavation, the relationship between the two remains uncertain. The irregularity of the hut site's outline, noted in the record, is itself telling: it suggests a structure shaped around the natural terrain rather than laid out to any formal plan.