What makes it worth pausing over is precisely how much structure survives: two banks separated by a fosse, which is a defensive ditch dug between earthen ramparts, with a scarp, a steep artificial slope, forming the inner enclosing element along the north-eastern to eastern arc. That a modern field boundary has been laid directly over the outer bank along its southern side is a reminder of how often these monuments are absorbed into the working logic of a farm, their original purpose slowly overwritten by more recent land division.

The rath, as oval ringforts of this type are known, measures roughly 36 metres east to west and just under 30 metres north to south. Ringforts were the most common form of enclosed settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically dating from around the fifth to the twelfth century, and they served as farmsteads for individual family groups rather than as military fortifications in any modern sense. The double-bank arrangement at Fairhill suggests the site may have belonged to someone of moderate social standing, as the labour involved in constructing two concentric banks with an intervening fosse would have been considerable. A gap of around four metres on the north-north-eastern side is thought to be possibly original, which would indicate where the entrance once lay.