Look more closely and the geometry becomes deliberate: a roughly circular enclosure, about 36 metres north to south and 34 metres east to west, defined by a bank that still stands 1.6 metres high on its interior face. This is a rath, the most common type of early medieval settlement in Ireland, typically a farmstead enclosed by one or more earthen banks and ditches, used from roughly the fifth to the twelfth centuries. What makes this one quietly interesting is how completely it has been absorbed into the working landscape around it.

The bank has been incorporated into the local field fence system, running from south-southwest to north-northwest, and is stone-faced on its exterior. A break in the bank to the north-northwest has had its sides revetted with mortared stonework, suggesting later intervention to formalise what may have been the original entrance. A cattle gap to the south serves the practical needs of the farm as it still stands today. Beneath the surface, in the northern quadrant of the interior, lies a souterrain, an underground stone-lined passage or chamber associated with early medieval settlements, most likely used for storage or as a place of refuge. The trees now planted across the interior give the enclosure a small, self-contained quality, making it look from a distance more like a deliberate grove than the footprint of a thousand-year-old homestead.