Raths, as these earthwork enclosures are commonly known, are among the most numerous monument types in Ireland, typically dating to the early medieval period and thought to have served as enclosed farmsteads for a single family and their livestock. What makes the Kinaff example quietly interesting is less its individual form than the fact of its near-neighbour, the two forming a pairing whose relationship, whether familial, sequential, or territorial, remains unresolved.

The rath itself is a roughly circular raised platform, measuring approximately 28.5 metres east to west and 22.5 metres north to south. It is defined by a scarp, essentially a steep-sided earthen bank, rising to around 1.8 metres at its northern and southern points with a slope width of about 2.8 metres. The edges are not intact on all sides. Along the south and south-west, sections of the scarp have been dug away, leaving a ragged profile, and the north-east to east arc was modified at some point when an old north-south lane ran alongside it. There is no clearly defined entrance surviving, though a low section of the scarp at the north-east is the most likely candidate for where one once existed. The interior, which slopes gently down from south-west to north-east, is grassy, and the perimeter is lined with hawthorn trees. Immediately to the south-west sit the remains of a ruined vernacular stone-built house and a shed, later structures that occupied the same elevated ground, with a road running east to west along the southern edge of the monument. The northward views from the ridge extend across a broad, shallow stream valley of damp pasture below.