Though the structure has been largely levelled by centuries of agricultural activity, careful observation reveals its ghostly outline in the modern landscape. The western edge follows a curving field boundary, whilst to the east, a subtle slope drops between half a metre and a full metre, marking where defensive earthworks once stood. These faint traces sketch out an oval footprint measuring roughly 40 metres east to west and 30 metres north to south; dimensions typical of the modest farmstead enclosures that dotted rural Ireland during the early medieval period.

The ringfort, or rath as it’s known in Irish, was built on gently sloping terrain with good soil quality, suggesting its original inhabitants chose the location carefully for both defence and agriculture. These circular or oval enclosures, surrounded by earthen banks and ditches, served as fortified homesteads for farming families between roughly 500 and 1200 AD. Inside the protective ramparts would have stood timber or wattle and daub buildings: a main dwelling house, perhaps some outbuildings for livestock or storage, all arranged around a central yard where daily life unfolded.

Today, this particular fort exists primarily as a mark on Ordnance Survey maps and a subtle variation in field topography that most passers by would never notice. Yet for those who know where to look, these barely visible earthworks represent one of thousands of similar sites across Ireland, each one a testament to the dispersed rural settlement patterns that characterised the Irish landscape for centuries before the arrival of the Normans.