Most cairns of this kind occupy prominent high points as standalone monuments; here, the relationship between the two structures adds a layer of complexity that archaeologists have not fully unpicked. The cairn measures roughly twenty metres across at its base and stands 2.35 metres high, making it a substantial presence on the hilltop, though quarrying has left its mark in several places: at the summit, at the eastern and southern flanks, and at the northern base where the disturbance has exposed the underlying limestone bedrock.

What makes the monument more than a simple mound is the secondary feature attached to its southern side. A low, flat-topped circular mound, approximately nineteen metres in diameter, is conjoined to the main cairn, its sides sloping gently outward and varying in height from around half a metre on the east to over a metre and a half on the south. The berm, an irregular flat ledge about two metres wide, interrupts the otherwise steep eastern fall of the main cairn, suggesting the site has had more than one phase of use or construction. Cairns of this type, essentially large heaped-stone monuments, were raised across Ireland from the Neolithic period onwards and often covered burial chambers or marked significant landscape positions, though without excavation it is difficult to say what, if anything, lies at the core of this particular example. The hillfort surrounding it, a defended enclosure typically associated with the Iron Age, implies that the cairn was already ancient when the fort was constructed, and that whoever built the fort chose to place it deliberately around or in relation to an older monument.