Measuring roughly 43 metres east to west, it survives mainly as a degraded earthen bank, the kind of low, grass-covered ridge that farming has a way of absorbing over centuries. Traces of the bank run from the north-east, around through the south, and back up to the north-west, but to the north of a modern field wall the surface evidence disappears entirely, the wall itself cutting across the monument at two points and effectively erasing what was once a continuous boundary.

Enclosures of this type, broadly circular or oval earthworks defined by a bank and sometimes a ditch, are among the most common archaeological monument forms in Ireland, though their purposes varied considerably. Some functioned as ringforts, the enclosed farmsteads of early medieval families; others served as enclosures for livestock, or had ritual or funerary uses that are now difficult to establish without excavation. At Cartrondoogan, the interior has been disturbed by digging in several places, which may reflect opportunistic searches for stone or soil in the past, or simply the pressures of working the land around a monument whose original purpose had long been forgotten. What remains is a partial outline, enough to confirm that something deliberate was built here, but not enough to say with any confidence what life inside it looked like.