That classification is curious in itself. A cleit is a type of dry-stone storage or shelter found almost exclusively in the St Kilda archipelago off the Scottish coast, where islanders built hundreds of them to store seabirds and dry peat. Whether the term was applied here as a genuine parallel or as a loose descriptive convenience is not clear, but the designation hints at the interpretive uncertainty that surrounds the site.

The structure itself is U-shaped, formed from double-walling of fairly earthfast stonework and large blocks, with internal dimensions of roughly six metres east to west and six metres north to south. Its open end faces north-west, directly into the prevailing weather off the Atlantic, which makes it an unusual orientation for a shelter of any kind and adds to the questions about its original purpose and period. It sits at the north-east end of a wider complex of enclosures, field walls, and hut-sites, suggesting it was not a standalone feature but part of a more extensive pattern of activity in the landscape. The cliff behind it rises seven to eight metres, and the ledge on which the whole arrangement sits is about sixty metres wide, with the river and dunes visible below.