When archaeologists first documented this site in the early 1980s, it appeared as little more than an oval grass-covered stone foundation, measuring about six metres by five metres with walls barely half a metre high. However, extensive excavations conducted between 1987 and 1992 by Professor Tom Fanning from NUI Galway revealed a much more complex and carefully designed dwelling beneath the surface.

The excavation uncovered a subrectangular stone house with internal dimensions of seven metres by 5.5 metres, built with drystone walls featuring inner and outer stone faces that held an earth and rubble core. The builders had crafted right-angled internal corners whilst keeping the external corners rounded, and positioned the main doorway centrally in the southwest wall, where flat stone paving led from the entrance towards the cashel’s main gate. Inside, two parallel rows of postholes ran the length of the building, which would have held timber posts supporting the roof rafters. The interior was cleverly divided into two distinct spaces: a smaller, carefully paved area at the southeast end, separated by a low stone kerb with what appears to be an entrance gap, suggesting it may have served as a private chamber, and a larger northwestern space containing a central stone-lined hearth with adjacent paving stones that likely served as a work surface.

The house’s sophisticated features included a stone-lined drain running beneath the floor south of the hearth and extending outside the building, whilst the discovery of burnt bone fragments and iron slag in the occupation layers hints at the daily activities of its inhabitants. Two shell middens found immediately adjacent to the structure provide further evidence of their diet and lifestyle. Radiocarbon dating places the house’s construction in the 9th century, though shells from one of the middens suggest the site saw continued or renewed occupation during the 11th century, indicating this modest dwelling served multiple generations of early medieval Irish families.