It took a gradiometer survey, a technique that detects subtle magnetic variations in the soil to reveal buried features, across roughly 15.5 hectares of ground to confirm what aerial photography had only faintly suggested: a circular enclosure, about 34 metres in internal diameter, defined by a single fosse, or ditch, with a narrow entrance gap of around three metres on its eastern side.

Ringforts, known in Irish as raths when they are earthen rather than stone-built, were the most common form of enclosed settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically dating from roughly the sixth to the twelfth century. Most were farmsteads, home to a family and their livestock. The one at Yellowbatter conforms to the general type in size and layout, but its survival as a largely subsurface feature makes it unusual; there is little left to see above ground. Archaeological testing carried out by Donald Murphy in 2021 brought the site into clearer focus. Excavation encountered the rath ditch measuring about 2.52 metres wide and 0.9 metres deep, and eleven possible pits were identified within the interior. Pits of this kind can indicate a range of activities, from storage to refuse disposal, though what these particular examples held or represented has not been fully established.