The rath here, a type of ringfort that would once have served as a defended farmstead during the early medieval period, survives as a roughly circular earthwork some 44 metres in diameter, its perimeter defined by a scarp rising about a metre in height and capped with a stone wall. The interior has long since been planted with coniferous trees, which gives the enclosure an oddly deliberate quality from a distance, a dark ring of conifers standing in otherwise open grazing land.

Raths were the most common form of settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically built between around 500 and 1000 AD by farming families who enclosed their homes and livestock within a raised earthen bank. This example follows that familiar circular form, though its combination of earthen scarp and stone wall topping suggests a degree of effort in its construction that points to a family of some local standing. More intriguing still is the possible souterrain recorded in the north-east quadrant. Souterrains were underground stone-lined passages or chambers, built beneath or adjacent to ringforts, and used variously for storage, refuge, or both. Whether the one at Aughinida is intact or only partially survives is not clear from what has been recorded, but its presence, even as a possibility, adds a subterranean dimension to an already layered site.