They are the likely remnants of a souterrain, an underground stone-lined passage or chamber built during the early medieval period, typically used for storage, refuge, or both. The largest of the three openings measures only fifty-five centimetres across and thirty centimetres high, which gives some sense of how these structures were designed: not for comfort, but for concealment.

The early Ordnance Survey mapped a rectangular structure sitting centrally within a larger enclosure on this spot, suggesting a settlement of some kind once organised itself around this place. That structure has since collapsed or been cleared away, leaving only a subrectangular depression measuring roughly 3.6 metres north to south and 2.9 metres east to west, sinking to a maximum depth of 1.4 metres. The small opening near its southern edge is the most likely candidate for a souterrain entrance, and two further openings to the northwest and northeast of the depression may belong to the same underground system, hinting at a more extensive network of passages than the surface now suggests. The site was surveyed as part of Aidan O'Sullivan and John Sheehan's archaeological survey of the Iveragh Peninsula, published by Cork University Press in 1996.