The structure is not large, measuring roughly five metres east to west and less than four metres across, but what was found inside it points far beyond the immediate landscape of Dursey Sound.

The hut sits on Ilanebeg, on south-east-facing slopes overlooking the narrow channel that separates the island from the Dursey headland. Its walls, built in drystone construction, that is, without mortar, using carefully stacked stone, average around a metre and a quarter in thickness, and an internal partition once divided the interior into two areas: a smaller, apparently featureless western room, and a main eastern space where a hearth was found. The opposing entrances on the north and south walls suggest a practical, well-considered layout. Test excavations carried out in 2003 investigated the south-western quadrant of the site, and the finds were unexpectedly cosmopolitan. The material culture was dominated by Iberian pottery and tiles, pointing to a connection with the continental fishing industry. Spanish and Portuguese fishing fleets worked the waters off the south-west of Ireland extensively in the early modern period, and small seasonal settlements or shore stations sometimes grew up to service that trade. The ceramics recovered here suggest that whoever sheltered in this hut was participating in, or at least closely engaged with, that wider Atlantic economy. A small U-shaped structure lies directly to the north, open to the west, and a second hut site sits roughly ten metres to the south, hinting that this was never just a lone dwelling but part of a small, purposeful cluster of buildings on an otherwise exposed and windswept shore.