Ringforts, known in Irish as raths, were the enclosed farmsteads of early medieval Ireland, typically dating from around the fifth to the twelfth century. They are common enough across the country, but finding a near-neighbour so close by hints at a landscape that was once more densely farmed and organised than the empty fields suggest today.

The fort at Gortavehy sits on a north-east-facing slope, its roughly circular interior measuring about 27.7 metres north to south and 24.3 metres east to west. An earthen bank, standing to around 1.25 metres in height, encloses the space, and along much of its outer face from the south-south-west around to the north it retains its original stone facing. Outside the bank runs a fosse, the term for the encircling ditch that is a standard feature of this type of monument, reaching a depth of up to a metre. The entrance, 4.1 metres wide, faces south-south-west and is stone-faced on its eastern side. One detail that speaks to the less romantic realities of farming life is the stone now dumped into the fosse on the eastern and south-south-western sides; it was cleared there during field fence maintenance, a practical intrusion that has partially obscured the original profile. A second ringfort lies around a hundred metres to the north, the two sites forming a small cluster in an area of what is now ordinary grazing land.