Cut slightly into the earth, roughly seven metres across, and ringed by the remains of a dry-stone wall, this is the kind of structure that could be walked past without a second glance. It sits on a north-to-south ridge of exposed rock, the sort of elevated spine that would have offered both a firm footing and a long view across the water.

The site is a clochán-type hut, a roughly circular dwelling defined less by its height than by the way it uses the landscape itself as shelter. The floor has been sunk about a metre below the surrounding ground level, a technique that reduces exposure to wind and lends the structure a degree of insulation. The enclosing wall, where it survives, stands around 0.8 metres high and is nearly a metre and a half thick, built in the manner of early vernacular stone construction without mortar. By the time the site was recorded by Ó Cuileanáin in 1955, the eastern side of the wall had already collapsed, leaving the western arc as the clearest indication of the original circuit. Structures of this kind are broadly associated with early medieval activity in Ireland, though the site has not been precisely dated.

The setting at Glannafeen places it within reach of the Lough Ine area, which has attracted archaeological attention over the years for the density of early activity around its shores. The ridge position would have given whoever lived or sheltered here a clear sightline over the lough below, making it a practical as well as a defensible choice of ground.