A souterrain, to use the term loosely borrowed from the French for "underground", is an artificially constructed subterranean chamber or series of chambers, typically built during the early medieval period in Ireland. They were dug into the earth and lined with drystone walling, then roofed with large flat slabs, and their purpose has long been debated: cold storage, refuge during raids, or some combination of both. The example at Carrowdotia is one of many such structures scattered across Clare, a county whose limestone karst landscape seems almost designed to swallow such things whole.

Souterrains in Ireland date broadly from around the seventh to the twelfth centuries and are most commonly found in association with ringforts, the circular enclosed settlements that were the dominant farmstead type of early medieval Ireland. Whether the Carrowdotia example follows that pattern is not currently documented in any publicly available form. What is known is that the site has been recorded as a monument, placing it within a long tradition of archaeological features in this part of north Clare, a region that has yielded everything from megalithic tombs to early Christian enclosures. The townland name itself, Carrowdotia, derives from the Irish and reflects the area's long continuity of settlement, though the precise history of this particular underground structure remains, for now, largely in the dark.