It is a corbelled structure, meaning its walls curve inward course by course until the stones meet overhead without the need for mortar or timber, a technique used in Ireland from prehistory well into the early medieval period. The upper courses have been rebuilt at some point, but the core of the structure remains, a circular room just 2.2 metres in diameter, with walls 1.5 metres thick and a standing height of only 0.9 metres. The entrance, facing roughly south-south-west, is less than a metre wide.

The sheer mass of the walls relative to the interior space is striking. A person inside this hut would have very little room to move, and the low ceiling would allow no standing upright. Structures like this on the Kerry mountains are generally associated with seasonal or temporary occupation, possibly by herders moving livestock to upland pastures during summer months, a practice known as booleying. The Iveragh Peninsula is particularly dense with such remains, and this example at Caherlehillan sits within a landscape that has seen continuous human use across many centuries, even if most of that use left only faint traces in the ground.