Causeways in the Irish landscape range from prehistoric wooden trackways laid across bogland to later stone-built crossings designed to connect isolated communities to drier ground or to allow the movement of livestock and goods across waterlogged terrain. Which of these traditions this particular example belongs to, and how old it might be, remains unclear from what is currently known about the site.

Callow itself sits in a part of Mayo characterised by low-lying ground, with the kind of wet, difficult landscape that would have made a constructed crossing genuinely necessary rather than merely convenient. The townland name may derive from the Irish "caladh", meaning a landing place or marshy riverside meadow, which would fit neatly with the presence of a causeway intended to negotiate exactly that sort of ground. Beyond its existence as a recorded monument, the specific history of this particular crossing, its date of construction, the materials used, and who built it, has not yet been fully documented in the public record.