That ambiguity is, in its own way, the most interesting thing about it. A souterrain, for those unfamiliar with the term, is a deliberately constructed underground chamber or tunnel, typically associated with early medieval ringforts and used for storage, refuge, or both. They are found across Ireland in considerable numbers, but this particular example occupies a peculiar position: it exists, so far as the record goes, only in local memory.

The rath at Rathkenny, a ringfort of the kind common throughout Kerry, has a published entry in the regional archaeological literature, specifically in Toal's 1995 survey of north Kerry antiquities. That entry makes no mention of any souterrain. Yet a separate record for just such a feature was compiled, its sole stated basis being local tradition. Whether that tradition reflects a genuine folk memory of something once visible, an oral account passed down from a time when the feature was more apparent, or simply a story that attached itself to an earthwork over generations, is not something the available evidence can resolve. It is a reminder that the landscape holds two kinds of knowledge, the documented and the remembered, and they do not always overlap.