A rath, as this type of site is commonly known, is an early medieval enclosure, typically dating from roughly the fifth to the twelfth century, built by a farming family as a defended homestead. The bank here is still readable in the landscape, enclosing a roughly circular area measuring approximately 39 metres east to west and 36.5 metres north to south, with the earthen bank reaching about 1.5 metres in height and an external fosse, or ditch, cut to a depth of around 0.9 metres. That fosse is deepest on the northern side, which may reflect the original builders concentrating effort where the approach felt most exposed.

What gives this site its particular character is the degree to which it has been worn away. There are gaps in the bank on the north, the east-north-east, the east-south-east, and the south-south-west, and the monument was largely levelled around 1987. That date is specific and sobering. Ireland contains thousands of ringforts, and a significant number were cleared during the latter decades of the twentieth century as farming machinery became capable of removing earthworks that had survived for well over a millennium. What remains at Monaparson is enough to trace the outline of something once substantial, though the visitor is now reading the ghost of a structure rather than the structure itself.