This step-like terrace, which survives best on the north-east side where it sits 1.16 metres above ground level, also marks a distinct change in the mound's gradient, the upper section being noticeably steeper than the lower. A flat-topped mound with a stepped profile of this kind is relatively rare, and it is the defining characteristic from which the site takes its classification as a stepped barrow.

The three mounds sit on an elongated, gently rising hilltop that runs north-east to south-west, and they are not quite in a straight line, the central mound sitting slightly to the north of a line drawn between the other two. Mound A, the largest, measures roughly 17 metres across and stands between 2 and 2.7 metres above the surrounding ground, the variation in height reflecting the natural slope of the hillside falling away to the east and south-east. A shallow ditch, between 2.8 and 3.1 metres wide, is traceable on the mound's west side. The grouping does not stand in isolation: within approximately 250 metres to the south-west lie two further barrows and a third possible prehistoric burial mound, and all six sites form a broadly linear arrangement across the landscape. When David McGuinness surveyed the complex in 2012, he noted that the mounds had suffered considerable erosion from cattle, and that the damage is most clearly appreciated by comparing the present condition with a photograph published by Shaw in 1921. The hilltop is also enclosed by a system of banks and ditches, some of which curve around the mounds at close quarters, though modern field boundaries have been cut through and partly obscure the earlier arrangement. Frewin Hill, the site of a ringfort and associated enclosure in County Westmeath, is clearly visible to the north.