What was once an impressive medieval fortification, strategically positioned with commanding views across the upland landscape, now exists only as a fragment of its former self. The motte originally featured a flat-topped mound measuring approximately 20 by 24 metres, rising 4 metres above the surrounding ground level, encircled by a wide, flat-bottomed defensive ditch and an outer earthen bank reinforced with stone.

Between 1973 and 1975, commercial gravel quarrying devastated this historic site, destroying most of the motte and its defensive features from the south, through the west, to the north. Only the eastern portion survived, saved by its proximity to a public road that curves around what remains of the enclosing bank and fosse. An aerial photograph from July 1966 captures the monument in its full glory, showing just how substantial this fortification once was, whilst also revealing an ominous gravel quarry already operating to the north; a harbinger of the destruction that would follow within a decade.

Today, the surviving eastern section is heavily overgrown, with spoil heaps from the quarrying obscuring much of the original features. During the destruction in 1976, workers discovered intriguing artefacts within a pit atop the mound, including antler bone, an iron knife, and a perforated stone, all now held by the National Museum of Ireland. These finds hint at the site’s medieval occupation and the daily life of those who once inhabited this defensive stronghold, making its near-total loss to industrial quarrying all the more regrettable.