The rath, roughly 32 metres across, is now little more than a grassed-over bank of earth and stone, its original outline still legible but worn well down from whatever height it once held. Two field walls, one cutting through the western side and another at the northeast, slice across the monument, the ordinary business of agricultural land division having proceeded without much regard for what lay beneath.

Raths, sometimes called ringforts, were the most common form of enclosed settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically dating from around the sixth to the twelfth century. They served as farmsteads for single family groups, the enclosing bank and ditch providing a degree of security for people and livestock rather than any serious military defence. Thousands survive across the country in varying states of preservation, but a great many, like this one at Rafarn, have been diminished by centuries of ploughing, grazing, and the steady encroachment of working farmland. The fact that this example sits on higher ground relative to its surroundings would have made it a sensible choice for a settlement, offering slightly better drainage and a clear view across the low-lying fields around it, qualities that mattered considerably to whoever first marked out its boundary.