A mound barrow, in its simplest form, is a circular earthen or stone mound raised over a burial, one of the most widespread funerary monument types in prehistoric Ireland and Britain. This particular example is roughly circular, estimated at around nine metres across and just over a metre high, its exact edges impossible to judge beneath the accumulated vegetation and rubbish. The plough has come within approximately two metres of its base on the field side, which goes some way to explaining both its disturbed condition and its survival as a slight rise rather than anything more imposing.

The mound appears on Larkin's 1808 map of County Westmeath, which suggests it was still visible and notable as a landscape feature into the early nineteenth century. When the site was examined in 1980, it was recorded as a small, disturbed bowl barrow, consisting of a low circular mound of earth and stones with small stones scattered across its surface. A bowl barrow is the most common barrow form, essentially a mound without an enclosing bank, often associated with Bronze Age burials. A 2012 survey revised the classification to mound barrow and noted the flat-topped appearance, a detail that may reflect later disturbance rather than original form. The surrounding ditch that typically accompanies such monuments could not be confirmed, though faint traces were considered possible beneath the overgrowth. The site sits on a low eminence with open views to the east, south, and west, and from it, across Lough Owel to the south-west, Frewin Hill is visible, with Knockdrin rising to the south-east, two other archaeologically significant landmarks in the same county.