The ground inside sits noticeably higher than the surrounding field, ringed by an earthen bank that still rises two metres on its outer face, with a shallow ditch, or fosse, running around the outside. It is, in short, a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, the type of enclosed farmstead that once dotted the countryside in enormous numbers. Archaeologists estimate that tens of thousands were built across Ireland between roughly the fifth and twelfth centuries, serving as the fortified homesteads of farming families and minor lords. Most have been levelled by centuries of ploughing; this one has not.

The enclosure is roughly oval, measuring about 41 metres east to west and 33 metres north to south. The bank is not uniform: its inner face is relatively low along the northern and east-south-eastern arc, while the external face reaches 2.2 metres in height along the same stretch, suggesting the builders shaped the earthwork to maximise the impression of height from outside. On the north-eastern side, some of the outer face of the bank retains stone facing, a detail worth noting because purely earthen raths are far more common than those with any masonry element. The fosse varies in depth around the circuit, surviving in the west as little more than a gentle slope down to the base of the bank, but cutting more decisively into the ground elsewhere. The interior is clear of overgrowth, which makes it easier to appreciate the raised platform effect that gives these sites their distinctive, slightly ceremonial quality even when nothing structural remains above ground.