The western side simply does not exist, and there is no archaeological evidence that it ever did. Ordnance Survey mappers in 1897 labelled the feature an 'Ancient Dwelling', a confident designation for something that resists easy categorisation even today. One stone in the southern wall stands noticeably taller than the rest, rising to just over a metre with a pointed top, lending the structure an oddly deliberate quality. Tucked into the eastern wall is a gryke, one of the natural vertical fissures that fracture Burren limestone, suggesting that whoever built here worked the existing rock into their design rather than simply clearing it away.

The antiquarian Thomas Johnson Westropp visited the site and recorded it in 1897 and again in 1901, noting at the time of his second visit that a small cist-like space adjoining the outside of the north wall appeared to be enclosed on all sides. A cist in this context typically refers to a box-shaped stone setting, often associated with burial, though whether that function applies here remains uncertain. By the time later surveyors arrived, that enclosure was less complete, with only the eastern and northern sides of the small compartment still clearly defined. The structure sits within a large, multi-period field system, meaning the landscape around it has been organised and reorganised by human hands across many centuries, complicating any attempt to assign the feature a single era or purpose.

What makes Ballyganner particularly striking is the density of prehistoric remains in its immediate surroundings. A cashel, which is a circular stone-walled enclosure typically associated with early medieval settlement, lies roughly 22 metres to the west. A court tomb, a Neolithic monument type characterised by a roofless ceremonial forecourt, sits around 154 metres to the north-west, and a wedge tomb lies approximately 202 metres to the south. The megalithic structure occupies a limestone pavement that slopes gently westward toward a broad ravine, placing it at the edge of a terrain that has been used, marked, and reused from prehistory onward.