The earthwork surrounding three sides of the burial ground traces a rough star shape in plan, with corners that project outward 15 to 18 metres beyond the graveyard walls and sides that indent back toward them at their midpoints. That geometry is the giveaway. A bastioned fort, a form of defensive earthwork developed in early modern Europe specifically to deflect artillery fire, was designed with precisely this kind of angular, projecting outline, allowing defenders to cover each face of the structure from the adjacent corners. Whether anything of that military function ever truly belonged to this Sligo hillside remains an open question.

The earthen platform itself measures roughly 73 metres north to south and 90 metres east to west, defined by a low scarp that reaches no more than 0.65 to 0.8 metres in height and retains a slight internal lip along its inner edge. The structure has not come through the centuries undisturbed. A north-south road running along the western wall of the graveyard has cut through the western side of the platform, clipping both the north-west and south-west projecting corners. A disused nineteenth-century house overlies the western end of the southern side. The north side of the earthwork has vanished entirely. The south-east corner alone remains intact, and the north-east corner has been absorbed into a field boundary. Mature trees and bushes have colonised much of the surviving platform, softening its outline still further.

The earthwork is most legible when approached with the graveyard as your reference point. Walking the outside of the cemetery wall along the eastern, southern, and western sides, the low platform and its projecting corners become visible in the pasture, particularly where the vegetation is thinner. The star-shaped indentations midway along each side, drawing the platform back to within 8 or 9 metres of the graveyard wall, are easier to read on the ground than any description quite prepares you for.