That combination, discovered and then deliberately reburied, gives this site an unusual character among the hundreds of souterrains recorded across Ireland.

Souterrains are stone-lined underground passages and chambers, typically associated with early medieval settlement and thought to have served as places of refuge, storage, or both. This one came to light in June 1981 during groundworks for the new National School at Ballyferriter, in the Corca Dhuibhne Gaeltacht of west Kerry. It was inspected by Sweetman of the Office of Public Works after its discovery. The accessible portion was a rectangular chamber oriented roughly east-north-east to west-south-west, measuring 3.3 metres long, 1.3 metres wide, and approximately 1.24 metres in height, though the original height could not be determined because the excavation had introduced a quantity of earth that partially filled the space. The walls were built in drystone, without mortar, and rose almost perpendicularly from the floor. At the western end, two large lintels capped the structure. A small air-vent, roughly 20 by 25 centimetres, was cut into the northern wall near the roof. Perhaps the most telling detail was a porthole slab at the south-south-west corner, the low, precisely shaped opening that would have connected the chamber to a passage beyond. It measured half a metre in both width and height, just large enough to crawl through, and it was entirely blocked by clay fill. After inspection, the souterrain was filled in, and today the ground above it gives no indication that anything lies beneath.