A souterrain, to give the structure its proper name, is an artificial underground chamber or series of chambers, typically built during the early medieval period in Ireland, roughly between the seventh and twelfth centuries. They were constructed from dry-stone walling and large capstones, and their precise purposes remain debated: cold storage, refuge during raids, or some combination of both are the most commonly proposed explanations. What makes them quietly arresting is that they represent a significant investment of communal labour, yet they were built to be invisible, to disappear into the earth above a farmstead or ringfort.

The souterrain at Creevagh More is recorded as a monument, placing it within a long tradition of such features found across Clare and the wider north Munster region. Clare has a notable concentration of early medieval settlement archaeology, partly because the limestone geology lent itself to dry-stone construction techniques. Souterrains in the county are frequently associated with ringforts, the circular enclosed farmsteads that were the dominant settlement type of early medieval Ireland, and it is likely that the Creevagh More example followed the same pattern, serving whoever occupied the adjacent ground above it during that period.