The larger of the pair measures roughly nine metres in diameter, with a second conjoined structure adjoining it to the north-east. That arrangement, two roundhouses sharing a wall or boundary, suggests these were not isolated shelters but part of a small domestic or pastoral complex, the kind of modest settlement that once dotted upland margins across Ireland without ever attracting the notice that defended sites or ecclesiastical ruins tended to receive.

The sites came to official attention when Ros Ó Maoldúin spotted and reported them to the National Monuments Service after examining Digital Globe satellite imagery captured between 2011 and 2013. It is a reminder of how much of the Irish archaeological landscape remains unwalked and unclassified, only becoming visible when aerial or satellite coverage reaches sufficient resolution. Hut sites of this general type, roughly circular enclosures defined by a low stony or earthen wall, are associated across Ireland with a broad range of periods, from the Bronze Age through to early medieval use, and without excavation it is difficult to assign Knockycallanan a precise date. What is clear is the logic of the location: a sheltered shelf on a north-facing hillside, protected from the prevailing wind, positioned where livestock could be managed across the surrounding upland.