What makes it worth a second look is the way the surrounding terrain does part of the work: the natural slope pressing into the bank on the north, west, and south sides has preserved what was almost certainly a fosse, the encircling ditch that once made this enclosure a genuinely defensible space. Between the field fence and the bank, running from east around to the southwest, the depression is still obvious enough to trace.

This is a rath, the commonest monument type in the Irish landscape, built and occupied roughly between the early medieval period and the early centuries of the second millennium. Raths were typically the farmsteads of prosperous families, defined by one or more earthen banks and ditches that enclosed a living area, kept livestock in, and marked social status as much as they provided security. The Condonstown example is circular, measuring about 34 metres north to south and 31 metres east to west, with a surviving bank rising to 1.8 metres, best preserved on the southern arc. The entrance, just under six metres wide, faces northeast and slopes down toward the exterior. Inside, a low rise runs for about 5.3 metres just within the bank on the same northeastern side, a feature whose original purpose is not stated but which could represent a collapsed internal structure or a deliberate earthwork. The interior itself slopes gently toward the northeast, following the natural lie of the land.