This rectangular enclosure, measuring approximately 56 metres northwest to southeast and 50 metres northeast to southwest, first appeared on the 1837 Ordnance Survey map as a large, defined space that would have once served as a fortified homestead during Ireland’s turbulent medieval period.

The site’s defensive features remain visible despite centuries of agricultural activity. Three sides of the enclosure; the northwest, northeast and southeast; are marked by what was once a water-filled fosse, now appearing as a broad, shallow depression roughly eight metres wide. The southwestern boundary tells a different story, where a substantial four-metre-wide field boundary likely incorporates remnants of the original defensive bank. Time and farming have taken their toll on the site, with partial levelling evident throughout the enclosure and a later field bank cutting through its northwestern end, accompanied by a well-worn farm track.

These moated sites were typically constructed between the 13th and 14th centuries by Anglo-Norman colonists or wealthy Gaelic families, serving as defended farmsteads rather than true castles. The water-filled moat would have provided both defence and drainage in these low-lying lands, whilst the enclosed area would have contained timber-framed buildings, perhaps a hall house, outbuildings and small garden plots. Today, cattle graze where medieval inhabitants once lived, worked and defended their small corner of Sligo’s rich agricultural landscape.