What it actually represents is a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, a type of enclosed homestead built in early medieval Ireland, typically between roughly the fifth and twelfth centuries. Thousands of them survive across the country in varying states of preservation, but this one at Rathreagh Beg is a particularly modest specimen, its defining features worn down to little more than gentle swellings in the turf.

The site was documented by Denis Power and uploaded to the record in August 2011, with aerial photographs taken by the Aerial Survey of Ireland in March 2006 providing additional context. The enclosure is roughly circular, measuring 25.5 metres north to south and 26 metres east to west, and sits on a gentle north-facing slope. An earthen bank defines the perimeter, standing only about 0.3 metres high on the interior face and 0.5 metres on the exterior, which gives a sense of how substantially it has been reduced over the centuries, most likely through agricultural activity. Around most of the circuit, an external fosse, meaning a ditch, accompanies the bank; it is 1.4 metres wide and survives to a depth of around 0.15 metres. At the south-east, however, both the bank and the fosse effectively disappear across a stretch of about 6.5 metres, which is likely the original entrance point to the enclosure. The interior, now under pasture like the surrounding farmland, rises very gradually towards the centre.

Because the earthworks are so low, the site rewards careful attention rather than a quick glance from the roadside. The slight central rise within the interior, combined with the near-continuous line of the fosse, becomes easier to read once you know what to look for. Aerial photographs, such as those taken in 2006, often reveal these features more clearly than ground-level inspection, particularly after rain or when low winter light throws shallow earthworks into relief. The south-east gap in the bank and fosse is the most legible feature on the ground and offers the clearest indication of how the original inhabitants would have moved in and out of the enclosure.