The monument has survived not because of any dramatic setting but almost in spite of it, its boundaries trimmed by later field divisions and its fosse, the defensive ditch that once ringed the enclosure, reduced to a shallow trace.

Ringforts, known as raths when defined primarily by earthen banks rather than stone, were the standard settlement form in early medieval Ireland, typically enclosing the home and outbuildings of a single farming family, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. The example at Curraghnaboul is modest in scale: the circular interior measures approximately 22 metres north to south and 20 metres east to west. It is defined by a scarped edge, meaning the ground was cut and shaped rather than built up from loose material, and that scarp runs for most of its circuit from north-north-west to south. At its best-preserved northern point, the builders raised the level of the monument deliberately to compensate for the natural fall of the hillside, a detail that speaks to a considered if unfussy approach to construction. The fosse, where it survives on the eastern and southern arc, has a basal width of around one metre and an overall spread of just over six metres, though it is now no more than 0.2 metres deep. Field boundaries have since truncated the earthwork at the south-west and north-west, and a drain runs along those same edges. The monument was compiled by Denis Power and uploaded to the record in November 2013.

Access to this site requires some patience, as it sits within commercial forestry and on a slope with limited open sightlines. The clearing in which it lies gives the best opportunity to read the scarp, particularly along the northern arc where the raised profile is most legible. The interior slopes gently downward from the bank toward the centre, a subtle topographic feature that becomes easier to notice once you are standing inside the enclosure rather than looking at it from the edge. Given the forestry surroundings, visits in late autumn or winter, when light penetrates the canopy more readily, offer slightly better conditions for appreciating what remains.