The reality, on the ground, is rather more modest and in some ways more interesting for that. What survives at the foot of the north-eastern slopes of Croaghmarhin is a roughly circular enclosure just 2.53 metres across, formed from upright stones and stones laid on edge, sitting in poor, wet pastureland. Directly to its east stands a box-like arrangement of five upright stones, open to the north-east, measuring roughly 1.45 by 1.09 metres internally. The geometry is too small and too functional-looking for a ceremonial monument; the working interpretation is that this was once a simple hut or a sheep-fold, the kind of low-grade agricultural structure that rarely attracts attention but once covered the landscape in considerable numbers.

The discrepancy between the OS designation and what is actually present was noted by J. Cuppage in the 1986 Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey, a detailed inventory of the Corca Dhuibhne region produced under the title Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne. That survey catalogued hundreds of sites across the peninsula, from megalithic tombs and early Christian remains to field systems and enclosures, and the entry for this site, numbered 1109, offered a corrective to the map label without resolving every question about the structure. The box-like annexe to the east is a particularly curious feature; its function is unclear, though comparable small stone compartments are sometimes associated with lambing pens or sheltered storage areas within pastoral enclosures. Whether the main enclosure and the annexe were built together or accumulated over time is not recorded.