The monument sits in an area where the surrounding grassland gradually rises into hills and undulating terrain in every direction, with the townland boundary of Ballybeg lying just 60 metres to the southwest. This strategic positioning on slightly elevated ground within marshland would have provided both defensive advantages and protection from the wet conditions that characterise much of the area.

The site, marked as ‘Rathniska’ on the 1837 Ordnance Survey six-inch map, consists of what was once a sub-rectangular enclosure measuring approximately 50 metres from northeast to southwest and 48 metres from east to west. The defining feature of this early medieval settlement would have been its substantial external fosse, or defensive ditch, which reached widths of up to 7.2 metres. Today, however, the monument has suffered considerable deterioration and is almost completely levelled, with only fragments of its former glory still visible to the trained eye.

Archaeological documentation by Frank Coyne and Caimin O’Brien reveals that the protective fosse can now only be traced along the northeast side of the monument, with a short additional segment visible at the southwest corner. Despite its poor preservation, Rathniska remains an important piece of the archaeological puzzle that helps us understand how communities organised themselves in early medieval Ireland, choosing defensible positions that balanced accessibility with security in the challenging landscape of the Irish midlands.