This central area is protected by an impressive defensive system: an inner earthen bank roughly 3 metres wide and 30 centimetres high, surrounded by a water-filled ditch or fosse measuring 3.6 metres across, with an outer earthen bank standing nearly a metre tall at 3.3 metres wide. Whilst the original entrance has been lost to time, a modern 4-metre break cuts through the southwestern outer bank, and the southeastern to southwestern sections of the outer bank have been incorporated into what was once a field boundary running northeast to southwest.

Attached to the northwest side of the main moated area lies an intriguing annex; a slightly raised rectangular platform measuring 28 metres by 14 metres. This extension is defined by the main site’s outer bank on its southeastern side and its own earthen bank, 2.65 metres wide and 40 centimetres high, along the southwestern to southeastern edges. Faint traces of an outer fosse, just 1.4 metres wide, can still be detected outside the northwestern to northeastern bank. The annex’s original entrance, complete with a causeway crossing the fosse, remains visible midway along the northwestern side, though a modern 2-metre break has been cut through the northeastern bank.

The site has seen some damage in recent years. In 2010, during controlled burning operations conducted by Sligo County Council in response to forest fires, portions of the annex’s enclosing elements were levelled, particularly on the northeastern side and the northeastern end of the northwestern side. A substantial pile of displaced stone and earth, measuring approximately 10 by 6 metres, now sits on the internal ground level just inside where the original enclosing elements once stood, serving as a reminder of both the site’s vulnerability and its endurance through centuries of Irish history.