The structure consists of a collapsed stone wall measuring up to 2.45 metres wide and reaching heights of 0.57 metres, forming a defensive ring that would have protected its inhabitants. Along the northern half of the perimeter runs a fosse, essentially a defensive ditch, measuring 2.1 metres wide and now only about 0.15 metres deep after centuries of infilling. Interestingly, this ditch doesn’t continue around the southern side, where the natural steep slope of the land would have provided sufficient defence on its own.

Inside the cashel, the eastern section preserves the tumbled remains of what was once a rectangular stone building. The structure’s footprint reveals dimensions of 4.8 metres by 4 metres externally, whilst the interior space measured a more modest 2.35 metres by 1.9 metres; thick walls that speak to the building techniques of the time. Two depressions pierce the cashel wall, one at the northwest and another at the west-southwest, though these are likely modern damage rather than original entrances.

This site at Málainn Bhig represents a type of fortified homestead common throughout Ireland, where families would have lived, worked, and sheltered their livestock within the protective embrace of stone walls. The combination of natural defences provided by the cliff-like terrain and constructed fortifications like the fosse demonstrates how our ancestors cleverly adapted their building strategies to work with the landscape rather than against it.