The structure is a souterrain, an underground passage or series of chambers built from dry stone, typically during the early medieval period in Ireland, and associated with nearby settlement sites. They were used variously for storage, refuge, or both. What makes the Laravoolta example quietly notable is not what survives above ground, because nothing does, but what was encountered below it and then sealed away.

The three chambers came to light through local knowledge rather than formal excavation, and the account passed on by R.M. Cleary describes them as stone built and subsequently backfilled. Backfilling is not unusual when underground features are found without the resources or conditions needed for full excavation; the material is covered over to prevent collapse and to protect what remains. A second souterrain lies approximately two hundred metres to the west, which suggests that whatever settlement once occupied this part of Cork was of some scale, or at least persistence. Two souterrains in close proximity often indicate a substantial ringfort or farmstead nearby, their underground chambers tucked beneath or just outside the enclosure bank.