The souterrain at An Bóthar Buí came to light during routine roadworks, when the expansion of a local lane broke through into a structure that had been undisturbed for centuries. What the workers found was unusual even by the standards of early medieval underground construction: two circular, beehive-shaped chambers joined by a connecting passage, neither tall enough to allow a person to stand upright. Once recorded, the whole thing was covered over again.

A souterrain is an underground stone-built passage or chamber associated with early medieval settlement, most commonly used for cool storage or as a place of temporary refuge. This one lies just outside the southern bank of an oval rath, a type of enclosed farmstead typical of early medieval Ireland, which sits at the junction of four fields on a gently north-facing slope. The positioning of the souterrain outside the rath's main bank is notable; most souterrains of this kind are found within the enclosure itself, which may suggest the structure served a particular function related to the boundary, or simply reflects the informal pragmatism of whoever built it. The site was documented by J. Cuppage in the 1986 Corca Dhuibhne archaeological survey of the Dingle Peninsula, a landmark regional study that catalogued the extraordinary density of ancient monuments across this part of west Kerry.

The chambers themselves remain inaccessible, reburied beneath the laneway surface. There is nothing visible to a passing walker beyond the low profile of the rath in the surrounding fields, its oval outline still legible at the meeting point of four field boundaries on the slope.