Ringforts, known in Irish as raths when formed from earthworks rather than stone, were the dominant settlement type of early medieval Ireland, typically serving as enclosed farmsteads for a family and their livestock. Most visitors to the Irish countryside will have walked past one without realising it, since thousands survive as low, grassy circles in fields. This one, near Glan in County Cork, is rather more substantial than most.

The enclosure measures roughly 51 metres across on its north-to-south axis, a size that places it towards the larger end of the rath spectrum. The earthen bank rises to 2.6 metres in height, and on the north-eastern to western arc it is accompanied by an external fosse, a defensive ditch, still about a metre deep. There are breaks in the bank to the north-west and to the east, which may represent original entranceways or later disturbances. The whole thing sits on a north-east-facing slope, currently in pasture, which is precisely the kind of unassuming agricultural setting where early medieval enclosures have often survived simply because the land was never worth the trouble of levelling. The protruding slab inside the eastern bank adds an extra layer of interest. It could be structural, the remnant of an internal building or a facing stone from the bank itself, but without excavation its purpose remains open.