It measures roughly twelve metres north to south and ten metres east to west, with a maximum height of around one metre at its southern end, so it reads less as a dramatic monument than as a slight thickening of the earth beneath the undergrowth. The reef itself provides clear views in every direction, with the twin-peaked Paps mountains visible to the east, and that elevated, open quality suggests the spot was chosen deliberately, whatever the cairn's original purpose.

The site does not stand alone. Around 150 metres to the north lay Rathanny, a bi-vallate ringfort, meaning a circular enclosure defined by two concentric banks and ditches, a form typically associated with Early Medieval settlement in Ireland. By the time Michael Connolly surveyed the area as part of a broader Lee Valley study in 1996 and 1997, Rathanny had been almost entirely levelled through field clearance, leaving little visible above ground. The cairn fared somewhat better, surviving intact beneath the vegetation inside the enclosure, though a scatter of loose stone throughout the overgrowth hints at some disturbance over time. Whether the cairn predates the ringfort, was built as part of the same complex, or represents something else entirely remains an open question.