The site consists of a roughly rectangular enclosure measuring approximately 78 metres north to south and 80 metres east to west. Its defensive features include an earthen bank that rises about a metre high on the inside and 1.3 metres on the outside, with a width of roughly 5.6 metres. Surrounding this bank is an external fosse, or defensive ditch, measuring about 4 metres wide and half a metre deep.

These moated sites were typically constructed between the 13th and 14th centuries, often by Anglo-Norman settlers or wealthy Irish families who adopted Norman defensive styles. The choice of marshy ground wasn’t accidental; the wet conditions would have made the surrounding fosse even more formidable as a defensive barrier, whilst the elevated position on the valley slope provided good visibility of approaching visitors or threats. The rectangular shape and substantial earthworks suggest this was likely a farmstead or manor house of some importance in medieval Laois.

Today, the site stands as one of many such earthwork monuments scattered across the Irish midlands, each telling the story of medieval settlement patterns and the complex interplay between Gaelic Irish and Anglo-Norman cultures. The information about this particular site comes from the Archaeological Inventory of County Laois, compiled by P. David Sweetman, Olive Alcock and Bernie Moran in 1995, though recent research continues to shed new light on these intriguing medieval landscapes.