It came to light not through archaeological excavation or local tradition, but as a consequence of pre-development survey work ahead of a wind farm project, which is itself a reminder of how much of the Irish landscape remains unrecorded until something else disturbs it.

The structure was identified by John Cronin and Associates during survey work carried out under Licence No. 16E0127 for ESB Wind Development Ltd. What makes it quietly ingenious is the way its builders worked with what was already there. Two large natural rocks happened to meet at roughly a right angle, forming a natural L-shape, and whoever built this shelter simply extended that geometry with two low walls of loose, random stone: one running 2.7 metres east to west, and another running 6.4 metres north to south. The resulting interior measures 5.2 metres by 2.1 metres, a narrow but workable space. A gap of 0.7 metres at the south end of the west wall is interpreted as an entrance, and a short additional wall, just over a metre long and nearly a metre high, was built to close off a gap between the two rock formations in the northeast corner, neatly plugging what would otherwise have been a draught or a structural weakness. The walls themselves survive to a maximum height of 0.4 metres and a width of about half a metre, which is modest even by the standards of field shelters and booley huts, the temporary seasonal structures that were once common across upland Ireland as herders moved livestock to summer pastures.