They are turf stands, sometimes called cleits, a term borrowed from the dry-stone storage cells famously associated with the remote island of St Kilda in Scotland, where turf and dried seabirds were cached against the winter. In an Irish context, the same word was applied to similar low stone enclosures used for stacking and drying cut peat, a practical necessity in areas where the ground held too much moisture for turf to cure where it was cut.

The site was recorded in the Record of Monuments and Places in 1996, listed under the cleit classification. A number of stands were brought to attention by Christine Grant, and when the site was inspected in 1998 the foundations of several examples were confirmed on the ground. By that point they were already irregularly shaped and partially overgrown, suggesting they had been out of use for some time. The rocky terrace setting is in keeping with the practical logic of such structures: elevated, exposed ground with good airflow would have suited the drying function well, even as the same terrain made the work of cutting and hauling the turf more demanding.