A ringfort once occupied the top of a low hillock in what is now open pasture, and by the time anyone thought to record its condition formally, it had effectively ceased to exist. When the site was inspected, no trace of the monument remained visible on the ground.

Ringforts, known in Irish as raths or lios depending on regional tradition, were typically circular enclosures defined by an earthen bank and ditch, built during the early medieval period and used as farmsteads or places of settlement. The Gorteen East example was recorded on the Ordnance Survey six-inch map of 1841 as an embanked circular enclosure with a diameter of approximately forty metres, which would have placed it firmly within the common range for such monuments. By the time the revised six-inch map was produced in 1923, only a short arc of the enclosing bank survived, running from the eastern to the south-western side. At some point after that, even that remnant was levelled entirely. The record was compiled by Denis Power and uploaded in August 2011.

The hillock itself still exists within the pasture, and that slight rise in the ground is now the only physical clue that something once occupied this spot. There are no earthworks to pick out, no stones, no visible crop marks noted in the record. Visiting purely to see the monument would be a frustrating exercise, though the landscape context, a hilltop position typical of how these enclosures were sited to command a view over surrounding farmland, gives some sense of how the original occupants may have chosen the location. Access would require landowner permission, as the site sits on private agricultural land, and there is nothing at the site itself to indicate its former significance.