The shells are an oddity in themselves, their presence here unexplained, lying across the collapsed remains of what was once a much more substantial settlement.

A researcher named Curran recorded the broader site as a stone cashel, which is a type of early medieval enclosure defined by a drystone wall, typically circular, used to protect a farmstead or small community. Within its walls he identified traces of two hut-sites. One of those huts had served as the entrance point to a souterrain, an underground stone-lined passage or series of chambers built beneath early Irish settlements, most likely for storage or as a place of refuge in times of danger. Curran was told the souterrain comprised several chambers, though the interior does not appear to have been surveyed in detail. The site was later documented in the 1986 Corca Dhuibhne archaeological survey of the Dingle Peninsula, compiled by J. Cuppage, which brought together records of this kind from across one of the most archaeologically layered landscapes in Ireland.

The souterrain's location does appear on Ordnance Survey maps, and the spread of stones and shells at the surface gives a rough sense of its footprint, but the underground chambers themselves remain largely uncharacterised. It is the kind of site that rewards careful attention to the ground rather than any obvious landmark, sitting quietly beside the water at the edge of a peninsula that has been occupied, in one form or another, for thousands of years.