That much is certain. What remains unclear is almost everything else: when it was built, by whom, and in what condition it survives. It has been recorded as a monument, assigned a classification, and given a place in the archaeological register, yet its date is listed simply as indeterminate, a word that speaks to how much of Ireland's built fabric resists easy categorisation.

Cahernaglass is a small rural townland in Galway, and the name itself carries a trace of older layers. The Irish "cathair" typically refers to a stone ringfort or enclosure, suggesting that the area has been settled and meaningful to people for a long time before any house of indeterminate date came to stand there. Houses recorded in this way, without a confirmed period of construction, can range from medieval structures reduced to earthworks or low walls, to post-medieval vernacular dwellings that were abandoned quietly over the centuries. Without more detail, it is not possible to say which kind this is, and that ambiguity is part of what makes it worth noting.