The structure is entirely invisible at ground level, its presence known almost entirely through a single nineteenth-century account and the bones of cattle and pigs that were pulled from it long ago.

The discovery was recorded by a writer named Hamilton in 1845, who described finding what he called a 'north house' in the demesne of Hampton. The description, as later interpreted by researchers including Mícheal Clinton, points clearly to a souterrain, an underground structure of early medieval Irish origin, typically built from stone and used for storage, refuge, or both. This particular example was substantial: a lengthy passage roofed with large flat stones, or flags, opening into a domed beehive chamber with its own ventilation. The animal bones recovered from inside, identified as belonging to oxen and swine, suggest the space was used in connection with food storage or processing, though it is impossible to say more than that with confidence. The site sits within the Pleasure Grounds to the west of Hampton Hall, according to local knowledge communicated to researchers by Thomas Ashe.

There is no surface feature to locate or examine. The souterrain lies beneath private demesne grounds, and the record compiled by Geraldine Stout notes simply that it is not visible at ground level. For anyone interested in early medieval underground architecture more broadly, Clinton's 1998 study of Irish souterrains provides the fuller context. The interest of this particular site lies less in what can be seen and more in what the 1845 account preserves: a brief, almost accidental description of a sophisticated underground structure sitting quietly beneath a landscaped Irish estate, still apparently intact.