Two such enclosures in such close proximity suggests a landscape that was once considerably busier than the gently rolling Westmeath pasture around them now implies.

A ringfort, or rath, is an enclosed farmstead of the early medieval period, typically dating from roughly the fifth to the twelfth century, defined by one or more circular earthen banks thrown up around a domestic interior. This one at Boardsland measures fifty-two metres in diameter, with a bank still standing between one and a half and two metres high, which is a respectable survival. When surveyors recorded it in 1971 and revisited it in 1976, they found the monument in a compromised but legible condition. A stretch of the bank running from the north-north-west to the north had been absorbed into a field boundary, effectively pressed into agricultural service, and there was evidence of quarrying that had disturbed part of the circuit. The original entrance had been obscured, though a gap on the southern side may mark where it once stood. Inside, the ground rises gently towards the centre, and faint cultivation ridges run east to west across the interior, the traces of a field system that post-dates the ringfort's active life. A field bank and drain curve around the outer edge from the north-east, sweeping east and then south-south-east, further complicating the relationship between the ancient monument and the working landscape that has grown up around it.

The site sits on a slight rise with open views in all directions, which is entirely typical of ringfort siting; early medieval farmers chose elevated, well-drained ground that gave visibility across the surrounding territory. That quality of prospect survives, even if the enclosure itself has been partially swallowed by centuries of subsequent land use.