It is the kind of feature that only becomes legible when you step back far enough, the outline of an enclosure pressed into the earth and surviving as a ghostly crop or soil mark rather than any upstanding structure.

The site sits on ground that overlooks a stream to the north, a watercourse that also marks the boundary between the townland of Anneville and the neighbouring townland of Gorteen. Enclosures of this broadly circular form are typically associated with early medieval settlement in Ireland, serving a range of functions from domestic farmsteads to ecclesiastical or ceremonial use, though without excavation it is rarely possible to say which. What makes this particular spot quietly interesting is its company. Two ringforts, the most common form of early medieval enclosed settlement in Ireland, circular earthwork enclosures usually defined by a bank and ditch, lie within a few hundred metres. One sits 220 metres to the south, another 440 metres to the west. That clustering of enclosed sites in a relatively small area suggests this corner of Westmeath was reasonably well settled during the early medieval period, with families or communities marking out their territories in the same modest, durable fashion across the same stretch of countryside.