Ringforts, known in Irish as raths when defined primarily by earthen banks, were enclosed farmsteads typically built during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. They were not military fortifications in any serious sense, but rather the homesteads of farming families, their banks and ditches serving as a boundary against cattle straying and wolves entering. The one at Liscormick is modest and partially worn down, but its essential shape has survived in the land.

The enclosure is oval, measuring approximately 52 metres along its north-east to south-west axis and around 40 metres across. Its character changes as you move around the perimeter. Along the southern and south-western arc, the bank and part of the interior have been levelled, most likely through centuries of agricultural activity. On the opposite side, from north-north-east around through east to south-east, the enclosure is defined not by a bank but by a scarp, a natural or cut slope dropping about 1.4 metres, which suggests the builders made deliberate use of the existing ridge topography. Where the earthen bank does survive, it is low and partly eroded, standing only around 0.4 metres high and roughly 1.8 metres wide. Beyond it, on the western and northern side, a shallow ditch and an outer bank are still traceable. A gap of about 2 metres in the bank at the north is thought to mark the original entrance. Inside the enclosure, towards the east, a patch of bedrock breaks through the surface, a reminder of the stony ground just beneath this seemingly soft pastoral landscape.