The rath at Raheenakit in County Wicklow takes a distinctly D-shaped plan, measuring about 31 metres on its longer axis, its flat sides running along the south-west and north-west where the enclosing bank has been absorbed into later field boundaries. That merging of early medieval earthwork with more recent agricultural land division is quietly telling: farmers working this upland ground over the centuries simply incorporated what was already there, treating the old bank as a ready-made field wall rather than an obstacle to remove. The site now sits under forestry, which has both preserved and obscured it.

A ringfort, or rath, is an enclosed farmstead of the early medieval period, typically dating from roughly the fifth to the twelfth century, defined by one or more banks of earth or stone and a corresponding external ditch known as a fosse. At Raheenakit, the bank survives to between half a metre and just over a metre in height, and is about two and a half metres wide. There is slight evidence for a fosse, around 1.8 metres wide, visible at the west and east of the enclosure, though at the south-west this ditch may be obscured by a sunken trackway, suggesting the landscape has been reworked repeatedly over time. Three gaps break the perimeter, at the north, north-north-west, and south-east. The south-east gap, at three metres wide, opens onto a narrow berm before reaching the fosse, which is the kind of arrangement often associated with a formal entrance. Yet no gap can be confirmed as the original, and the question of which way the occupants faced out onto their world remains open.