The site, designated as National Monument No. 624, consists of a steep-sided earthen mound surrounded by a deep fosse, with traces of outer earthen banks still visible along its northern, eastern and southern edges. The motte itself, measuring roughly 14 metres across at its summit and standing 2 to 3 metres high, features a large central depression, likely the result of quarrying. What makes this site particularly intriguing is that the castle appears to have been constructed on top of an earlier early Christian ecclesiastical enclosure, suggesting the strategic importance of this lakeside location throughout different historical periods.

The northern section of the site contains a roughly triangular enclosure bounded by wide banks of earth and stone, which may represent the original bailey of the castle. Within this area stands a graveyard that first appeared on the 1838 Ordnance Survey map as a D-shaped ‘Grave Yard’ in what was then called the ‘Church Park’. Archaeological evidence suggests a church building once stood here, though it has long since been levelled. The graveyard’s evolution continued into more recent centuries; by the 1914 Ordnance Survey revision, a smaller rectangular burial ground had been established at its centre, serving as the private cemetery for the Smyth family of nearby Portlick Castle. This later burial ground incorporates architectural fragments believed to come from a late medieval church that once stood within the earlier graveyard.

The site continues to yield archaeological treasures that speak to its ancient origins. An early Christian cross-slab, discovered built into the fabric of the Smyth family burial ground wall, is now housed in the National Museum of Ireland. Additional early Christian features dot the surrounding landscape; a possible bullaun stone and a cross socket stone can be found 120 and 165 metres south of the main site respectively, near the lakeshore. These discoveries, combined with the layered history of ecclesiastical enclosure, medieval fortification and later private burial ground, demonstrate how this modest rise of ground by Lough Ree has served as a focal point for local communities across multiple centuries, each generation adapting and repurposing the site whilst adding their own chapter to its long history.