What survives is roughly 26 metres of a once-circular enclosure, its bank still standing about a metre high on the interior side, with a shallow external ditch, or fosse, that would originally have reinforced the boundary. The cliffs themselves, around three metres high at this point, now serve as the monument's northern and western limits, which means that a structure once defined entirely by human effort is now partly held in place by coastal erosion.

The enclosure is tentatively identified as a ringfort, the most common type of early medieval settlement monument in Ireland, typically consisting of a circular bank and ditch enclosing a domestic area. Here, the interior dimensions run to about 11.8 metres north to south, and within that space survives part of the foundation course of a circular hut, measuring roughly 7.9 metres east to west. Most of the hut's perimeter has been lost, possibly to the same coastal processes that have eaten into the enclosure itself. A gap of around 4.4 metres at the south-eastern end of the bank may represent an original entrance. About 20 metres to the south, in an area known as the Abbey Field, two rectangular structures have been recorded separately, hinting that this corner of the island once held a small cluster of activity rather than a single isolated feature.

Great Saltee is privately owned and access is generally possible by boat from Kilmore Quay during the summer months, when the island is best known for its seabird colonies. Anyone making the crossing for the wildlife may find, if they walk to the north-eastern point, that the low earthworks in the grass are easy to overlook, particularly during the nesting season when the ground is busy with other business entirely.