The surrounding land has been brought into agricultural use, but the monument itself has been left alone, and the result is an odd kind of preservation: the encircling ditch, known as a fosse, remains waterlogged and is now colonised by bulrushes, giving the ancient earthwork an unexpectedly lush outline.

A ring-barrow is a burial monument of prehistoric origin, typically consisting of a raised central platform surrounded by a ditch and an outer bank. The example at Aughatubbrid follows this pattern closely. The central platform measures 13.3 metres in diameter, the fosse around it is three metres wide and still holds water to a depth of around 0.3 metres, and the external bank beyond that adds a further 3.4 metres, bringing the whole structure to an overall diameter of just under 20 metres. The mound occupies the south-western quadrant of a larger circular enclosure nearby, suggesting it was not placed here arbitrarily but formed part of a more extensive landscape of monuments. The site sits on a slight rise, with the ground falling away to the north-west into open bog some 150 metres distant. A modern field bank and hedge running north-east to south-west cuts close to the barrow's edge, so agricultural activity has pressed right up to the outer bank without, apparently, disturbing what lies within. The reclamation of the surrounding field makes the preserved earthwork read almost as an island, its original profile still legible against the flattened land around it.