A cashel is a stone-walled ringfort, the drystone equivalent of the more familiar earthen rath, and this one measures approximately 56 metres east to west and 54 metres north to south. Its boundary wall, built from large boulders on a low earthen bank, still stands to around 0.7 metres in places and runs to a width of 2.4 metres, enough to suggest it was once a serious barrier rather than a simple field boundary.

What makes the interior particularly compelling is the density of occupation evidence concentrated in the eastern half. Three hut sites cluster there, each with a distinct shape: one circular, roughly 10.5 metres in diameter; one square, at about 6.3 by 6.5 metres; and one rectangular, measuring 7.4 by 6.2 metres, with two low stone walls connecting it directly to the cashel's enclosing wall. The circular hut contains a souterrain, an underground stone-lined passage or chamber typically associated with storage or refuge in early medieval Ireland, which adds another layer of complexity to the site's original function. A fourth hut site lies just 5 metres to the north-east of the cashel itself, sitting outside the enclosure. The whole arrangement, recorded in D. Lavelle's 1994 archaeological survey of the Ballinrobe district, points to a small but organised settlement rather than a single household, with the varied hut shapes hinting at different uses across what was once a working compound set into the gently rolling pasture of south County Mayo.