It is not much to look at from a distance, but look closer and the wall reveals seven rectangular gun loops, each one splayed outward, meaning they are narrower on the exterior face than on the inside, a design that allowed a defender to swing a weapon across a wide field of fire while exposing as little of themselves as possible to anyone shooting back. The loops sit at roughly 2.4 metres above ground level, and the surviving corner stands to about 3.4 metres in height.

The curved north-east corner is all that remains of what would have been a fortified barrack enclosure, the kind of installation that punctuated the Irish countryside during periods of British military consolidation. An ordnance stone sits at ground level, a marked boundary stone associated with military land ownership, indicating that this site was once formally held and surveyed by the British military authorities. The gun loops, each a modest 12 centimetres wide and 45 centimetres tall on the outer face, speak to a building designed not just to house soldiers but to defend itself, suggesting a period when such precautions were considered entirely necessary in West Cork.