It measures roughly 47 metres north to south and 40 metres east to west, and it has been quietly holding its shape against the surrounding pasture and tillage for long enough to appear on the first edition Ordnance Survey six-inch map of 1839, and again on the 1947 revision. A farm track now cuts east to west through its northern half, the kind of practical intrusion that accumulates over generations without anyone necessarily deciding to disregard what lies beneath.

The earliest cartographic record of the enclosure also shows two small ponds in its vicinity: one to the west, about 12 metres from the earthwork and measuring roughly 23 by 17 metres, and another some 30 metres to the north-east, with a stream running westward from it. Enclosures of this type in the Irish landscape are often the remains of early medieval ringforts, circular or oval earthen boundaries that once enclosed a farmstead or small settlement, though without excavation it is difficult to say more about Rathaleek's origins or function. What the maps do confirm is that the feature was recognisable and considered worth recording as early as the mid-nineteenth century, and that the associated water features were part of the same local landscape at that time.