It is the kind of place that reads as unremarkable from a distance, just a grassy bank in a field, but step closer and the geometry becomes hard to ignore. The enclosure measures roughly 42 metres north to south and 41 metres east to west, making it a substantial example of what archaeologists call a rath, an earthen ringfort of the kind built across Ireland primarily during the early medieval period, roughly the fifth to the twelfth centuries. These were the defended farmsteads of their age, home to a single family and their animals, their status expressed in the scale of the earthworks around them.

This particular example is well preserved. The main earthen bank still stands to 2.25 metres in height, and outside it runs a fosse, a defensive ditch, dropping to a maximum depth of two metres. Beyond that, a lower counterscarp bank, the outward lip of the ditch, adds a further 0.5 metres of definition to the whole arrangement. The entrance survives to the northeast, where a causeway crosses the fosse, a feature relatively rare in its completeness. Inside, the ground is level, with a slightly raised area near the centre whose purpose is unclear. Beneath the surface, or possibly opening from it, there may be a souterrain, an underground passage or chamber built from stone, typically used in early medieval Ireland for storage or as a refuge. The north-facing ridge position is no accident; the elevation would have provided both early warning of approach and a visible statement of presence across the surrounding landscape.