A small mound of earth and stones in the eastern quadrant may be the collapsed remains of a hut, and a curving bank of earth and stone in the southern quadrant could represent a second. Neither is dramatic to look at, but that is precisely the point: early medieval domestic life rarely announced itself.

Ringforts, the circular enclosures defined by one or more earthen banks and ditches, were the most common form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically dating from roughly the fifth to the twelfth century. Most enclosed a farmstead, and it was not unusual for two or more small structures to occupy the interior. What makes Kilpatrick quietly interesting is the suggestion of that internal arrangement still faintly legible in the landscape, with Lough Owel lying just 200 metres to the south-west and Kilpatrick Well, a holy well associated with the site's place-name saint, roughly 280 metres to the north-east. The proximity of fresh water from both the lake and the well would have made this a practical and probably long-used patch of ground.