This is a rath, a type of ringfort built during the early medieval period, typically between the sixth and tenth centuries, when such enclosures served as the fortified homesteads of farming families. What gives this one a particular character is the interior, which has been planted with conifers, so the earthen bank now encircles a small wood rather than the open ground that would once have enclosed a house, outbuildings, and livestock.

The bank itself is substantial, measuring roughly 40.2 metres across and standing 1.8 metres high at its best-preserved points, though it has been disturbed along the north-east edge. Locally, the site has long been called a "lios", the Irish term for a ringfort that carries a folk association with the supernatural, specifically with the fairy mounds of Irish tradition. That name was recorded as early as 1939 by Hartnett, suggesting the community had its own way of understanding and naming the place well before modern archaeology arrived to measure it. The lios designation is significant in itself; sites known by that name were often left undisturbed by generations of farmers who thought it unwise to interfere with them, which may partly explain why the bank, though imperfect, has survived at all.