The hut is modest by any measure, roughly five and a half metres across and less than a metre high where the walling survives, with stones from its fallen walls lying in a heap against its exterior. Around it, clearance cairns, the low mounds of stone gathered by past farmers when clearing land for cultivation, suggest the field has a long history of human use, each feature quietly accumulating beside the others.

The site lies about eighty metres south of a related monument on the same stretch of the peninsula, placing it within a broader landscape of early settlement. The name Cathair Samháin refers to a stone fort, a cathair being a type of dry-stone enclosure associated with early medieval occupation in the west of Ireland, and this hut may once have functioned in relation to that larger structure, perhaps as an outbuilding or shelter for seasonal use. The walls, where they can still be read, are roughly built rather than finely coursed, which points more toward functional, vernacular construction than anything ceremonial or high-status. Wall thickness of just over a metre, substantial relative to the overall diameter of the structure, is consistent with the kind of simple corbelled or thick-walled building found elsewhere across Kerry's archaeological landscape.