The site is extraordinary in scale, comprising three roughly oval ramparts enclosing an area of some twenty-seven hectares, yet it remains relatively little visited and is not widely discussed outside specialist circles.

Mooghaun's place in Irish prehistory was secured long before archaeologists began mapping its walls in detail. In 1854, during the construction of the West Clare Railway, workers draining a nearby lake disturbed what became known as the Great Clare Gold Hoard, the largest collection of Bronze Age gold objects ever found in Ireland or Britain. Hundreds of gold pieces, rings, bracelets, and lock-rings were recovered, though many were melted down before the find was properly recorded. The hoard predates the hillfort itself, but the proximity of such concentrated wealth to the site has long suggested that Mooghaun and its surrounding landscape held exceptional significance across several prehistoric periods. The enclosures themselves are generally dated to the Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age, constructed from locally gathered stone and following the natural contours of the hill in a manner typical of Irish multivallate hillforts, where multiple enclosing walls or banks were built in succession around a central defended area.