First recorded on the 1840 Ordnance Survey map as a rectangular enclosure, today only fragments of this medieval earthwork remain visible in the landscape.

What survives is the southeast bank of what was once a substantial rectangular enclosure measuring approximately 22 metres from northeast to southwest and 35 metres from northwest to southeast. This earthen bank stands about 2 metres wide, with an interior height of 0.4 metres and an exterior height of 1 metre. Faint traces of an external fosse, or defensive ditch, can still be detected running alongside the bank, though centuries of erosion and agricultural activity have taken their toll on these features.

These moated sites, common throughout medieval Ireland, typically date from the 13th to 14th centuries and were often associated with Anglo-Norman settlement. They served as defended homesteads for colonists and wealthy farmers, with the raised banks and water-filled ditches providing both practical drainage and a degree of security. The Gortnahalla example, though now reduced to earthwork traces, represents an important piece of Tipperary’s medieval landscape and the complex patterns of settlement that shaped the region during the Middle Ages.