These structures are found across Ireland in their hundreds, yet each one raises the same unanswered questions. Who built it, who used it, and for what purpose? Souterrains are generally associated with ringfort settlements and are thought to have served as places of refuge, cool storage for dairy produce, or both, though the specifics vary considerably from site to site.

The Lissalacaun souterrain sits within a landscape that would have been actively farmed and settled throughout the early medieval centuries, a period roughly spanning 400 to 1200 AD when such underground features were most commonly constructed across the island. Mayo has a notable concentration of these monuments, many of them still unexcavated and poorly documented, their full dimensions and internal layouts unknown. Without excavation or detailed survey, it is impossible to say whether this particular example is a simple single-passage construction or something more elaborate with multiple chambers and lintelled roofing slabs.