This is a univallate rath, a type of ringfort enclosed by a single bank and ditch, the most common form of early medieval settlement in Ireland. Thousands were built, typically between the sixth and tenth centuries, as defended farmsteads for a single family or household. What gives this particular example its quiet interest is the combination of features preserved within and around it, set against the slope of the mountain with Valentia Harbour visible to the west.

The enclosing bank is composed of earth and stone and measures around 21 metres across internally, north to south, and 22 metres east to west. At the downslope western side it still reaches an external height of 1.75 metres, though it drops only 0.3 metres on the interior face, while at the eastern side it stands 0.9 metres high internally and extends 2.3 metres in width. The northern arc has largely disappeared, truncated by a field boundary, and the bank is gapped in several places elsewhere. The most likely original entrance sits at the south-east, where a gap 2.2 metres wide interrupts the bank. A shallow fosse, a drainage or defensive ditch, follows the inner base of the bank in the eastern sector, though whether this was part of the original construction or a later feature is uncertain. Inside the enclosure, the stone foundations of a circular hut survive, roughly 5 metres in internal diameter, with a narrow opening of just 0.4 metres at the south-west. A local tradition also holds that a souterrain, an underground passage or chamber sometimes used for storage or refuge, lies hidden in the north-western quadrant of the rath, though its condition and extent remain unconfirmed. The archaeological survey of the Iveragh Peninsula, compiled by A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan and published by Cork University Press in 1996, records all of this without resolving the souterrain question, which gives the site a small open-ended quality that surveys rarely manage to preserve.