It is the kind of feature that can pass entirely unnoticed at ground level, blending into the rough texture of the hillside, yet from above its geometry becomes suddenly legible, a neat ring pressed into the landscape.

Hut sites of this type are among the more quietly persistent features of the Irish upland record. A low earthen or stone bank enclosing a roughly circular area is the signature form of a simple early medieval dwelling or seasonal shelter, built without mortar, relying on mass rather than engineering to provide some protection from wind and cold. They are found across upland Wicklow in some number, partly because the higher ground was never as thoroughly ploughed or built over as the lowlands, leaving these slight earthworks intact where they might otherwise have been erased. The Aurora example came to wider attention through aerial imagery, with a Google Earth photograph from May 2009 showing the circular enclosure with enough clarity to confirm its form.