No earthwork rises above the surface, no ditch or bank announces itself to a passing walker. What survives is a cropmark, the faint signature of something buried, visible only when viewed from above under the right seasonal conditions.

Cropmarks form when buried features, such as the ditches or foundations of an ancient enclosure, affect the way plants grow in the field above them. Soil that has been disturbed and refilled tends to retain more moisture, encouraging lusher, slightly taller growth; compacted or stony features do the opposite. From the air, or on aerial photography, these differences in vegetation produce outlines that correspond to what lies beneath. At Knockanree, orthophotography taken in 2000 and examined in the early 2010s revealed what appears to be one such circular outline. Circular enclosures of this kind are common across Ireland and can range in date from the prehistoric period through to the early medieval, when ringforts were the standard form of rural settlement. Whether this particular example belongs to any of those traditions remains unconfirmed. The site was brought to wider attention in 2013 by Ivor Kenny.