Roughly 55 metres long, it is not consistently visible above the surface of the pebble beach; the stones close over it, and a visitor walking along the shore might cross it several times without realising. What makes it quietly odd is precisely this quality of intermittent presence, a piece of functional infrastructure that the landscape keeps half-swallowing.

The slipway almost certainly dates to the mid nineteenth century, built to serve the ruined vernacular house that sits just to its west. A vernacular house, in this context, means a modest dwelling built in local tradition rather than to any formal architectural plan, the kind of structure that once housed island families throughout the west of Ireland. The connection between house and slipway suggests a working household that depended on the water, landing goods or a currach on this stretch of shore. Two further slipways are recorded on the Ordnance Survey six-inch map of 1923, positioned roughly 40 metres and 114 metres to the north, which points to a small community making regular use of this part of the island's edge. Scattery Island itself, situated in the Shannon Estuary near Kilrush, is perhaps better known for its early Christian monastery and its distinctive round tower, but this corner of the foreshore preserves a much later and more domestic layer of island life. In 1971 the entire island was placed under a Preservation Order, recognising the cumulative weight of what survives here across many centuries.

The slipway is most legible at low tide, when the intertidal zone pulls back and more of the structure can be traced leading down from the shoreline. It sits to the east of the ruined house, so arriving at the ruin first and then following the line toward the water is the most straightforward way to find it.