It does not announce itself. What was once a walled structure has long since collapsed inward, leaving a ring of rubble roughly 13.3 metres across, enclosing a central area of about 6 metres that is itself choked with fallen stone. Only a short stretch of what may have been the original inner wall face survives to any legible degree, a single course visible for about 2 metres along the south-eastern side. The bank of collapsed material stands no more than 0.4 metres high and varies between 2 and 5 metres in width.

The site sits in close company with a ringfort, the two occupying the same raised ground between bay and mountain. A hut-site of this form, a drystone circular structure, would typically have served as a domestic dwelling or ancillary building within or near an early medieval settlement, though the precise date and function of this particular example remain unconfirmed. The description of the site was first drawn up by J. Cuppage as part of the Corca Dhuibhne archaeological survey of the Dingle Peninsula, published in 1986, a substantial regional study that catalogued the remarkable density of prehistoric and early medieval remains along this stretch of the Kerry coast. The landscape around Derrymore Island holds that kind of density quietly, without ceremony.