This square earthwork first appeared on the 1840 Ordnance Survey map, and by 1897, surveyors had documented its impressive dimensions: approximately 46 metres along each side, with a defensive bank and fosse system that once protected whatever structure stood within. The antiquarian Thomas Johnson Westropp, writing in the early 20th century, recorded the fort as measuring 250 feet across, though time and agriculture have since taken their toll on the monument.

Today, the site exists primarily as a cropmark visible from above, its square outline still discernible in aerial photography despite centuries of farming activity. Modern satellite imagery from Digital Globe and Google Earth reveals the ghostly impression of the original 48 by 52 metre enclosure, though a drainage channel now cuts through its northern and eastern edges where farmers have reclaimed the land for practical use. The southern section shows the clearest preservation, where the original bank has weathered into a scarp, whilst traces of the external bank system can still be detected running from the southeast around to the northwest.

These moated sites, scattered across the Irish countryside, served as fortified homesteads for Anglo-Norman settlers and Gaelicised lords during the medieval period. The Mountblakeney example, with its substantial earthwork defences and strategic positioning, would have provided both status and security to its inhabitants. Though the buildings that once stood here have long vanished, the earthwork’s enduring presence in the landscape, even as a mere shadow in the crops, connects modern Ireland to its complex medieval heritage.