This rectangular enclosure, which locals still refer to as the ‘lios’, appeared clearly on 19th-century Ordnance Survey maps; first depicted with hachured marks in 1842, then shown as a trapezoidal enclosure measuring roughly 60 metres from east-northeast to west-southwest and 50 metres from north-northwest to south-southeast on the 1905 and 1936 editions. The maps also revealed a small square structure, about 15 metres on each side, tucked into the southwestern corner of the main enclosure.

Though the site was largely levelled in the late 1950s, traces of its former grandeur persist in the landscape. A partially surviving bank runs along the southern edge for about 50 metres, standing at 35 centimetres high on its inner face and an impressive 1.6 metres on its outer side. The northern side shows only a gentle rise where defensive earthworks once stood. Local memory preserves details that archaeology alone cannot reveal; residents recall that the site once had a fosse, or defensive ditch, that retained water, providing both protection and perhaps a water source for the settlement’s inhabitants.

Today, the site sits quietly between a field boundary to the east and a grove of conifers to the south, its pastoral setting belying its historical significance. These moated sites, found scattered across the Irish countryside, were typically built between the 13th and 14th centuries by Anglo-Norman settlers or prosperous Irish families. They served as fortified homesteads, combining domestic living spaces with defensive features that reflected the uncertain times in which they were built. The Farahy site, though diminished, remains an important piece of Cork’s medieval landscape, preserved in both the physical traces on the ground and in the collective memory of the local community.