The rath, an oval earthen ringfort measuring roughly 44 metres east to west and 35.4 metres north to south, is defined by a raised bank of earth that once enclosed a domestic settlement, most likely a farmstead of the early medieval period, perhaps between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Raths of this kind were the most common form of rural settlement in early Ireland, built by farming families as much for status and livestock management as for defence, and tens of thousands once existed across the country. This one at Manninard is not dramatic in its dimensions, but it is a recognisable presence.

What makes the site quietly telling is the way later land use has worked against it. A field wall cuts directly through the monument at two points, to the north-northwest and the south-southeast, bisecting the enclosure as if the earthwork were simply an inconvenient lump in the way of a boundary line. To the southwest, the original bank has largely disappeared beneath dense overgrowth. McCaffrey, writing in 1952, recorded the site and noted it was in fair condition, which suggests that some further deterioration has occurred in the intervening decades, though the enclosure remains legible enough to be surveyed and recorded. The tension between the monument's survival and the uninterrupted demands of the working landscape around it is not unusual in Ireland, but it is particularly visible here.