It measures roughly nine metres north to south and just over six metres east to west, rising only between 0.4 and 0.6 metres above the surrounding ground, with a notably flat top a couple of metres across. From a distance it could easily be mistaken for a natural rise in the limestone plateau. Up close, a large stone, nearly two metres long and aligned north to south, protrudes from near the cairn's western edge, and the working theory is that the mound may have accumulated around this single stone over time as farmers cleared the surrounding field of rocks, a mundane agricultural process that has, over generations, produced something that looks quietly ceremonial.

The site sits within a large multiperiod field system and lies approximately eight metres outside the south-eastern wall of Caherwalsh cashel, a cashel being a type of early medieval stone-walled enclosure, typically circular, used as a farmstead or defended settlement. The proximity to Caherwalsh is significant context. The antiquarian Thomas Johnson Westropp, writing between 1900 and 1902, noted the presence of a cairn and associated hut-sites in the vicinity of Caherwalsh, suggesting the area had already drawn attention as a cluster of related features rather than isolated monuments. A small enclosure that abuts the outer cashel wall has since been built over part of the cairn's northern side, partly obscuring it, which adds another layer to what is already a complicated palimpsest of land use across different periods. The 1916 Ordnance Survey six-inch map records the spot simply as 'Carn', a plain Irish word meaning a heap of stones, which at least confirms the mound was recognised and named even then.