The location, which overlooks a valley through rolling pastureland, was once a rectangular enclosure that likely served as a fortified homestead during the medieval period. Though centuries of agricultural activity have softened its features, the site’s outline remains traceable in the landscape, with a low earthen bank marking where protective walls or ditches once stood.

Historical maps reveal how this site has changed over time. A 1772 estate map labels the surrounding field as ‘Lisheen’, whilst the first Ordnance Survey map from 1840 shows it as a roughly square enclosure with its western side incorporated into a field boundary. By 1902, the eastern side had disappeared from maps entirely, and the southern boundary had lost its straight edge. Today, visitors can still make out an irregular enclosure measuring about 31 metres from north to south, defined by a flattened earthen bank roughly 4.5 metres wide, though the field boundary that once formed the western side has since been levelled.

Moated sites like this one were common across medieval Ireland, typically built between the 13th and 14th centuries by Anglo-Norman settlers and wealthy Irish families. These fortified farmsteads consisted of a raised platform surrounded by a water-filled moat, providing both defence and a display of status in the countryside. Whilst Garryglass’s moat has long since dried up and its buildings have vanished, the earthworks that remain serve as a tangible link to a time when the Irish landscape was dotted with these small but significant strongholds.