The cartographers of that era recorded it with hachures, the small radiating lines used to indicate an earthwork or raised enclosure, suggesting that a century and a half ago the site was legible enough to merit documentation. By the time anyone went to look at it properly, most of that legibility had gone.

When the site was examined in 1998, what remained was a low, reed-covered rise in a wet field, measuring roughly 40 metres north to south and 25 metres east to west. No defining features survived at ground level, no bank, no wall line, no ditch. What the surveyor could say, however, was that the position and dimensions were entirely consistent with a rath or cashel. A rath is an early medieval earthen ringfort, typically enclosing a farmstead or high-status dwelling, while a cashel is its stone-built equivalent. Both are common across Clare and the wider Irish countryside, though many have been reduced over centuries by agriculture, drainage, and the slow pressure of weather. The slight elevation on which this one sits is itself a characteristic feature of such sites, chosen for drainage and visibility rather than any dramatic defensive purpose. Whether the original enclosure was earthen or stone is now impossible to determine without excavation.