The locals called it "Sean-Mhulteann", an Irish phrase that translates roughly as "the old mill", which implies a long-standing folk memory attaching some kind of industrial or functional significance to this hollow in the ground, even if the precise nature of that significance has not been recorded.

The name was noted by the archaeologist Seán P. Ó Riordáin in 1931, at a time when the feature was presumably still visible and legible in the landscape. Ó Riordáin, who would go on to become one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century Irish archaeology, was at the early stages of a career that would later encompass major excavations at sites including Lough Gur in County Limerick. That he recorded this pit at all suggests it was considered worthy of attention, perhaps because of its irregular form, its local name, or simply because it was the kind of feature that resisted easy categorisation. Since then, the ground has been planted with conifers, which tends to obscure surface features and makes reading the landscape considerably harder.