Along the eastern to south-eastern to southern arc of the site, the fosse, the encircling ditch that would normally run unbroken around the perimeter, simply is not there. Whether it was never dug along that stretch, or whether later activity has obscured it, is not recorded. What remains is a raised circular area with an interior diameter of 36.2 metres, enclosed by a substantial earthen bank and, where it survives, a wide and deep fosse. The original entrance has not been identified.

Ringforts, known in Irish as raths when they are earthen rather than stone-built, were the dominant form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, broadly from the sixth to the twelfth century. They served as enclosed farmsteads, with the bank and ditch providing both a practical barrier against livestock straying and a degree of social prestige, the scale of the earthworks often reflecting the status of the family within. A site of 36 metres interior diameter is a reasonable size, neither especially modest nor unusually grand. Cavan, with its drumlin landscape, is well populated with such monuments, many of them surviving in varying states of preservation across fields that have changed little in outline since they were first enclosed.