What makes them unusual is not any single feature but their number and their consistency: nine structures, all broadly alike, all modest in scale, all belonging to a group known locally as the Fionnán enclosures.

Each enclosure follows the same basic pattern. A circular platform, averaging around six metres in diameter, is defined either by a ring of boulders or loose stones, or by a low bank of peat, with a shallow external fosse, that is, a ditch running around the outer edge. This combination of raised platform and surrounding depression is a form found at various prehistoric and early medieval sites across Ireland, though the precise date and function of the Gowlanes examples is not firmly established. The fact that nine such features survive in close proximity, dispersed but evidently related, suggests deliberate and repeated use of this particular patch of ground, possibly for enclosing small habitation areas, stock, or some ceremonial purpose that has since lost its name.