These circular earthwork enclosures, built across Ireland throughout the early medieval period as farmsteads or defended homesteads, are far more commonly found on gentler ground, orientated to catch the sun and survey the surrounding land. The rath at Kilcolman West in County Limerick breaks that convention, its interior sloping downward to the north, the whole structure tilted into the hill rather than commanding it.

The site is sub-circular in plan, measuring roughly 32.5 metres north to south and 30.5 metres east to west. It is enclosed by an earthen bank which, where it survives best, still rises to an external height of nearly three metres, though on the interior face it stands only 0.4 metres above the enclosed ground level. A fosse, or defensive ditch, runs around the outside of the bank along the northern arc of the enclosure; it measures two metres wide and survives to a depth of 0.3 metres. Remnants of stone revetment, the facing material used to stabilise and reinforce earthen banks, are visible along parts of the inner face to the north-east and east, and on the outer face at the north-north-west. The enclosing bank has been lost entirely along the south-south-west to north-west arc, and the outer face on the northern and north-western side has been significantly worn down by cattle grazing across the slope. Two breaks in the bank, each approximately two metres wide, are located at the east-south-east and south-south-east, at least one of which may represent an original entrance. The survey, compiled by Denis Power and uploaded in August 2011, also notes that a small square field shown immediately to the north-east of the site on the 1923 Ordnance Survey six-inch map has since been removed.

The site sits in pasture and remains in agricultural use, which accounts for much of the erosion visible on the northern bank face. Cattle have done considerable damage to the outer earthwork on the downslope side, so the best-preserved sections are those running from the north-west around to the south. The remnants of stone revetment are worth looking for along the inner bank on the north-east to east-south-east arc, where they give a clearer sense of how the original structure was constructed and consolidated. The landscape immediately around the fort has changed since the early twentieth century, with the neighbouring field boundary no longer visible, which means the relationship between the fort and its immediate setting is harder to read than it once was.