The stakes stand roughly seven metres apart, set about fifteen metres out from the shore, and the mud around them has preserved them long enough for researchers to take notice.

A fishweir, in its simplest form, is a fixed structure designed to trap or guide fish as tides rise and fall, and wooden post-and-net weirs were once common features of Irish estuaries and river mouths. What makes these two stakes particularly interesting is their proximity to Canon Island, less than three hundred metres across the water to the east, where similar stakes have been recorded. O'Sullivan and colleagues, writing in 2010, noted the resemblance between the two sites and suggested the Inishloe stakes were either anchor points for a net or the remnant of a more substantial timber structure. A creek running just to the east of the stakes would have made the location well suited to guiding fish into a trap as the tide ebbed. Whether the Inishloe and Canon Island stakes belong to the same period or represent separate episodes of the same traditional practice is not yet established.