The structure came to light not through deliberate excavation but through the kind of archaeological monitoring that accompanies large road schemes, in this case the construction of the N8 Rathcormac-Fermoy Bypass. Without that infrastructure project, the site would almost certainly have remained undisturbed and unrecorded beneath the fields of north Cork.

The trench itself was roughly 1.4 metres wide and 0.6 metres deep, enclosing an internal area of about 7 by 9 metres, with an entrance nearly 3.7 metres across facing north-east. That entrance orientation is telling: it pointed directly towards a rath located approximately 160 metres to the east. A rath is a roughly circular enclosure, typically defined by an earthen bank and ditch, that served in early medieval Ireland as a defended farmstead or settlement. The adjoining rath at Skahanagh was radiocarbon dated to between AD 620 and 690, placing it firmly in the early medieval period, and the excavator judged the C-shaped structure to be contemporary with it, likely representing some form of domestic or industrial activity on the settlement's periphery. Inside the structure, excavators found charcoal pits, hearths containing cremated bone, and what appeared to be the remains of kiln flues. Just outside it, two deep pits showed heavily oxidised bases, the kind of discolouration left by sustained, intense burning in one place. The combination of features suggests a working area, possibly involved in some form of craft production or food processing, rather than a straightforward living space. The cremated bone within the hearths adds a more ambiguous note, one that the excavation report does not fully resolve.