The enclosure measures roughly 32 metres east to west and 31 metres north to south, making it a substantial feature in terms of area, yet its defining edge has been so thoroughly absorbed into the landscape that it reads more as a gentle swell in the ground than any kind of deliberate boundary.

Karst terrain, formed by the gradual dissolution of limestone bedrock, dominates much of County Clare, and its thin, uneven soils have a way of preserving earthworks that might have been ploughed away elsewhere. Enclosures of this general type, defined by a bank rather than a wall or ditch, are a recurring feature of the Irish countryside and can date anywhere from the early medieval period onward, sometimes serving as farmsteads, sometimes as enclosures for livestock, and occasionally as boundaries with a ritual or ceremonial function. The Croagh example is irregular in plan rather than the near-circular form associated with many early medieval ringforts, which gives it a slightly different character, though what originally stood inside it, or what purpose it served, remains open.