Ploughed into near-invisibility beneath arable farmland, it sits on the crest of a low hill, its original form long since softened by centuries of cultivation. At ground level, there is simply nothing to see.

The site owes what little documentation it has to cartographic history. William Duncan's 1821 map of County Dublin marks the spot with the word "Moat", a term that in the Irish context typically refers not to a water-filled ditch but to a raised earthen mound, often of medieval origin. Such mounds were sometimes the remains of motte-and-bailey fortifications, a form of castle introduced by the Anglo-Normans after the twelfth-century invasion, in which a timber or stone tower was built atop a constructed or naturally adapted hill, with an enclosed courtyard beside it. Whether that is the origin of the Jordanstown earthwork is not recorded, but the label "Moat" on Duncan's map suggests it was still recognisable as a feature of some consequence in the early nineteenth century. Geraldine Stout, who compiled the record uploaded in August 2011, notes it was situated on the crest of a low hill under tillage, which goes some way to explaining its subsequent disappearance from view.

For anyone determined to locate the spot, the honest advice is to manage expectations carefully. The earthwork is not visible at ground level, and the land is under tillage, meaning access is likely to be restricted to field margins or public roads in the vicinity. What the site offers, practically speaking, is less a monument to inspect than a lesson in how thoroughly the agricultural landscape of the Dublin hinterland has absorbed, and in many cases erased, its own earlier layers. Duncan's map, available through various Irish historical archives online, is arguably the most tangible trace of the feature that now survives.