The site in Dromkeen South is classified as a ditch barrow, a type of prehistoric burial monument defined by a surrounding fosse (a shallow ditch cut into the ground) rather than a substantial raised mound. What makes this one genuinely odd is not what it contains, but how inconsistently it reveals itself from above. It showed up clearly on Ordnance Survey Ireland orthoimages captured between 2005 and 2012, presenting as a circular enclosure with an external diameter of roughly 12 metres. By the time Digital Globe photographed the same ground between 2011 and 2013, it had effectively vanished. A further check on Google Earth imagery from June 2018 confirmed it was still invisible. The monument exists, seemingly, only in certain lights, seasons, or soil conditions.

The earliest record of the site comes not from maps but from low-level aerial photography. The Bruff aerial photographic survey of 1986, which systematically documented archaeological cropmarks and earthworks across this part of County Limerick, captured the enclosure and logged it as reference Bruff 49 (AP 4/3717). At that point it appeared as a U-shaped enclosure rather than a fully closed circle, which may reflect the angle of the overflight or differential soil moisture at the time. Notably, the site does not appear on any of the historic Ordnance Survey Ireland maps, meaning it was either already too degraded to register as a surface feature during the nineteenth-century surveys, or it was never prominent enough to attract attention on the ground. The ringfort known as Gortavalley Fort lies approximately 110 metres to the north-north-east, and while no formal connection between the two sites is recorded, the proximity is worth bearing in mind.

The monument sits in pasture roughly 50 metres east of the townland boundary with Dromkeen. Because it produces no reliable surface expression, there is very little to see from ground level; the earthwork does not announce itself with a raised bank or obvious depression. Visiting with recent aerial imagery to hand, and ideally after a dry spell that might emphasise cropmark contrast, gives the best chance of orienting yourself on the spot. The 2005 to 2012 OSi orthoimages, which remain the clearest documentation of the enclosure's circular form, are available through the OSi historic mapping viewer and offer a useful reference before any visit.