The site offers sweeping views across the landscape to the south, east and west. At its heart lies a circular platform measuring 70 metres across, though centuries of history have left their mark on this intriguing fortification.

The western side of the site reveals the most intact defensive features: an earthen bank defines the platform’s edge, accompanied by two wide, flat-bottomed fosses, each three metres wide. Between these ditches rises a substantial intervening bank, standing three metres high and spanning just a metre in width. Whilst the northern and eastern defences have been significantly altered over time, a three-metre-wide causeway entrance remains visible at the western approach. The platform’s centre contains the ruins of a medieval tower house, with only the southwest corner standing to any appreciable height; the remaining walls survive merely as foundation traces, devoid of any distinguishable architectural features.

The site’s complex history has sparked debate amongst historians and archaeologists. Some suggest this was originally a large bivallate ringfort, with the tower house added later during the medieval period to take advantage of the location’s natural defensive qualities. Local historian Shaw proposed in 1971 that this earthwork served as the ancient stronghold of the Molloy family. Another theory suggests the entire enclosure might have been constructed alongside the tower house as a contemporary defensive bawn, designed to protect the medieval structure from the outset. Whatever its origins, Pallas Castle stands as a fascinating example of how successive generations adapted and reused defensive sites throughout Irish history.