A cairn, in the broadest sense, is a deliberately constructed heap of stones, often prehistoric in origin and associated with burial or landscape marking. This one is oval in plan, measuring just over fourteen metres north to south and nearly ten metres east to west, and its south-western arc rises in a noticeable series of steps, giving it a faintly tiered appearance that distinguishes it from a simple rubble pile. At its summit, itself a roughly oval platform of nearly three metres by three and a half, you get a sense of the care, or at least the deliberate intention, that went into its construction.

What complicates the picture are the depressions. Four distinct hollows have been recorded in the cairn's sides, positioned at the north-west, east, slightly off-centre to the east, and south-south-east. The largest, on the north-west face, measures three and a half metres by four and a half and drops a metre in depth. These are consistent with the kind of disturbance that cairns across Ireland have accumulated over centuries, whether through casual stone-robbing, treasure-hunting, or earlier archaeological curiosity. The record was compiled by Denis Power and uploaded to the Archaeological Survey of Ireland in August 2011, with aerial photographs taken from October 2002 providing additional documentation. The surrounding landscape at the time of survey was covered in ferns, furze, and briars, with more recent conifer planting beginning to close in around the site.

That plantation context matters practically. A mechanical digger had already carved a passageway skirting the cairn from the south-east around to the north-west, leaving a band of displaced earth and stone pressed against the monument's base, approximately three metres wide. This kind of forestry clearance work, commonplace in upland Ireland, can subtly alter the immediate setting of a site and make its original ground level harder to read. Visitors approaching the cairn should be aware that what looks like the natural base of the mound on its north-western side may partly reflect that accumulated spoil. The stepping visible along the south-western arc remains the clearest feature to look for, and the summit platform, modest as it is, gives a reasonable sense of the monument's original intended scale.