The overhanging rock forms a ready-made roof, and whoever once used this place needed only to close off the open side with a low drystone wall to make something habitable. That wall, built without mortar in the traditional drystone manner, still stands to a height of roughly half a metre, curving around a semi-circular floor space measuring just two and a half metres by three. It is barely large enough for a person to lie down, let alone stand upright.

Sites like this are difficult to date with precision, and this one is no exception. What can be said is that the basic form, a natural overhang pressed into service and enclosed with a simple stone wall, is among the oldest building strategies known to people in Ireland. Whether it served a seasonal shepherd watching livestock on the mountain, a traveller caught in poor weather, or someone living on the margins of settled society is impossible to say from the physical remains alone. The mountain stream running to the west would have provided fresh water, and the bogland surrounding the site would have offered both fuel and a degree of natural isolation. The scale strongly suggests temporary or seasonal use rather than a permanent dwelling.