The arrangement is not vandalism exactly, more a gradual layering of domestic life over the centuries, the kind of quiet collision between the ancient and the contemporary that is easy to miss until you look at the geometry from above.

A ringfort, sometimes called a rath, was a type of enclosed farmstead common across Ireland during the early medieval period, typically consisting of one or more earthen banks surrounding a central living area. This particular example at Brittas is bivallate, meaning it has two concentric enclosing banks with a fosse, or ditch, running between them, a configuration that suggests a degree of status or defensive intent beyond the simplest single-banked examples. The structure was recorded as roughly circular, measuring approximately 35.5 metres east to west and 34.5 metres north to south. By the time surveys were carried out in 1971 and 1978, the inner bank had been reduced largely to a scarp, and outhouses had been built partially into the bank on the southern and western sides. A modern stone wall now runs along its base for much of the circuit. The original entrance has been lost entirely. Despite all of this, the outer bank remains traceable along the southern and western arc, and the shallow fosse is still visible in places. The site was already recognised as something worth marking when the Ordnance Survey produced its Fair Plan map in 1837, where it was simply annotated "Fort".