The raised oval mound, measuring roughly 17 metres northwest to southeast and 24 metres northeast to southwest, sits just 150 metres from the lakeshore. Its proximity to the medieval ruins of Portnashangan church and its associated burial ground, which lie 60 metres to the east-northeast, suggests these sites were once connected in ways we’re still trying to understand.

The 1837 Ordnance Survey Fair Plan map provides valuable clues about the monument’s original appearance, depicting it as an oval earthwork labelled simply as ‘fort’, with a spring well positioned just outside to the east-northeast. The map also shows a drain or stream flowing past the earthwork’s eastern base towards Lough Owel; this watercourse remains visible today. The mound itself, now covered in scrub vegetation and defined by a distinct scarp, rises towards its centre in a way that’s characteristic of medieval earthworks. A gap in the northern scarp, about 1.8 metres wide, likely marks the original entrance.

Whilst the 19th-century cartographers identified this as a fort, modern archaeological assessment suggests something rather different. The monument’s profile bears stronger resemblance to either a burial mound or, more intriguingly, a motte; a type of Norman castle mound that would have once supported a wooden tower. If it is indeed a motte, its association with nearby Portnashangan church would place it within the complex medieval landscape of Anglo-Norman settlement in Ireland, when such fortifications often stood near churches to protect both the spiritual and temporal interests of their builders.