It measures roughly nine metres east to west and six and a half metres north to south, rising only about forty centimetres from the ground, and yet its oval outline is well defined along its eastern edge, and three stones, each between thirty and fifty-seven centimetres tall, have been deliberately built into its fabric. That combination, an earthen enclosure with stones incorporated into its structure, is what sets it apart from a simple field boundary or natural undulation in the hillside.

The purpose of small oval earthworks like this one is rarely certain. They appear across Ireland in various forms, sometimes interpreted as the remains of a ringfort, a type of enclosed settlement common from the early medieval period, or occasionally as something older and more ceremonial in function. What adds a further layer of interest at Cousane is the presence of a standing stone a short distance to the south-east. Standing stones are among the most enigmatic features of the Irish landscape, erected anywhere from the Bronze Age onwards, and their relationship to nearby earthworks is not always understood, though the pairing is not uncommon. Whether the two features at Cousane are contemporary or belong to entirely different periods, the slope above the Owvane River appears to have drawn repeated human attention across a considerable span of time.