The relationship between the two is the curious part. Ringforts, which are circular enclosures defined by earthen banks and ditches, were the most common form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically serving as defended farmsteads. They were not, as a rule, places where later rectangular buildings were planted at their centre. That this one was, and that the date of the house remains genuinely indeterminate, gives the site an unresolved quality that no amount of tidying up can quite dispel.

The site sits on a rise in pasture ground, with open views across the surrounding landscape, which may itself be a clue to why both the ringfort and the later building ended up here. High, well-drained ground with long sight-lines was attractive across many different periods and for many different reasons, from the defensive priorities of early medieval farmers to the practical needs of later inhabitants who simply wanted to keep livestock or store goods in a dry, elevated spot. Whether the rectangular building belongs to the post-medieval period or something earlier is not recorded. What is known is that its outline survives within the older enclosure, the two structures layered one inside the other, each from a different moment in the long occupation of this small hill in Westmeath.