The raised platform measures 40 metres from northwest to southeast and 32 metres from northeast to southwest, surrounded by a substantial bank constructed from earth and stone. This defensive bank, measuring just over 4 metres wide and standing nearly a metre high on the interior, would have once formed an imposing barrier around whatever structures stood within.

The site’s original entrance remains clearly visible as a 7-metre gap in the northeastern section of the bank, though time and agricultural activity have created additional breaks at three other points around the perimeter. Beyond the bank lies evidence of a fosse, or defensive ditch, that once encircled the entire site. While this ditch has long since been filled in, its presence is still detectable as a 6-metre-wide band of darker grass that traces the outline of the ancient fortification.

Moated sites like this one at Caltragh were typically constructed during the Anglo-Norman period in Ireland, serving as fortified homesteads for wealthy landowners or minor nobility. The combination of raised platform, defensive bank, and water-filled ditch would have provided both security and status to its medieval inhabitants, creating a small island of Anglo-Norman culture in the Irish countryside. Today, this quiet field preserves the footprint of a settlement that likely thrived here some 700 to 800 years ago.