The site carries no visible surface trace, which places it in a particular category of archaeological record: known primarily through local tradition rather than physical evidence, its existence neither confirmed nor disproved.

Souterrains are dry-stone underground chambers and passages, typically associated with early medieval settlement in Ireland, dating broadly from around the seventh to the twelfth century. They were likely used for storage and possibly as places of refuge. The land at Caherkeen sits on an east-facing slope with views across Coulagh Bay to the north-east, and the field immediately to the west may contain the remains of a cashel, a type of stone-walled enclosure that commonly surrounded early medieval farmsteads. The proximity of a possible cashel to a possible souterrain is consistent with how such features tend to cluster; the two would have functioned together as part of the same settlement. Whether either structure actually survives in any meaningful form underground is another matter.