That slight displacement from the highest point is one of the more quietly interesting things about this rath in Gortaskibbole: the builder clearly understood the ridge's topography well enough to exploit both its defensive geometry and its commanding views, without committing to the most exposed position at the very top.

A rath is an Early Medieval enclosure, typically dating from roughly the fifth to the twelfth century, defined by an earthen bank and an outer ditch called a fosse. At Gortaskibbole, the raised circular area measures approximately 25.3 metres east to west and 22.4 metres north to south. The bank itself, built of gravelly earth, is between 4.8 and 5 metres wide, and while its interior face rises only 0.2 to 0.35 metres above the enclosed ground, the external slope is considerably more pronounced, reaching 1.8 metres. That asymmetry is deliberate: the effect from outside the enclosure would have been of a solid, compact wall of earth, even if those inside experienced only a modest rim. The fosse survives most clearly on the northern side, where it is 3 metres wide and 0.4 metres deep; elsewhere around the circuit it has softened to a shallow depression. A wider gap on the south-east, where the bank dips to its lowest point, may represent the original entrance, and some large stones and boulders are clustered there, though whether these were part of the original construction or simply accumulated field clearance is uncertain. Inside, a low stony scarp curves across the eastern half, with hazel trees growing along its edge, marking a slight drop in the ground toward the east and south-east. Hawthorn and hazel ring the full perimeter. A second rath sits roughly 200 metres to the west, at the base of the ridge, which raises the possibility that the two enclosures functioned in some relationship to one another, perhaps belonging to the same community or landholding at different periods.