Whether it fully earned that title is harder to say. What survives at Carrigacooleen is a partial arc of low earthen bank, running roughly south to north over a chord of about seventeen and a half metres, with its eastern end abutting a field fence that may have absorbed or replaced whatever once closed the circuit. The bank itself is modest, rising around half a metre on the interior and a little more on the outside. On the north-north-west side, a shallow depression of about half a metre depth may represent the remnants of a fosse, the external ditch that would have accompanied the bank when the monument was intact and in use.

Earthworks of this kind are generally associated with early medieval ringforts, a class of enclosed farmstead that was widespread across Ireland from roughly the sixth to the twelfth centuries. A ringfort typically consisted of a circular or oval area enclosed by one or more earthen banks and ditches, serving as a defended homestead for a farming family and their animals. What stands at Carrigacooleen is only a fragment of such a form, and the site's condition adds a further layer of ambiguity. The interior is waterlogged, and a stream fed by an underground drain runs through the southern half, which complicates any reading of the original ground surface or internal features. Time, farming, and drainage patterns have all left their mark here, leaving something that gestures at a former function without fully declaring it.

The site sits in pasture on a sloping field, and the earthwork is low enough that it could easily be missed without knowing what to look for. The slight rise of the bank and the damp hollow of the possible fosse are the most legible features on the ground. The waterlogged interior means the going underfoot can be soft, particularly in wetter months.