It is no longer in water. The lake has contracted considerably since the mound was built, and what was once a structure rising from the middle of a lake now sits on marshy ground, its shoreline roughly 65 metres to the west. A crannog, for those unfamiliar with the term, is an artificial or modified island, typically constructed during the early medieval period as a defensible dwelling place, reached by boat or by a concealed causeway. This one, however, may be something slightly different.

When archaeologist Aidan O'Sullivan described the site in 2004, he noted that it reads less like a purpose-built crannog and more like a natural island that was adapted and reinforced for use as one. The mound is large by any measure, roughly 80 metres by 60 metres in plan and 2.5 metres high, oval in shape and flat-topped. Around its perimeter there appears to be a kerb of boulders approximately one metre across, with smaller stones packed tightly around them. At the north-western side, at least four wooden piles were recorded. Two smaller mounds nearby also show signs of possible stone kerbing. The site sits in a narrow drumlin valley at the south-eastern end of Lough Derravaragh, and the original lake, before it shrank, would have surrounded the mound entirely. In late 2022, archaeologists Caitríona Moore and Maggie Kobik carried out a detailed survey of the site and found its topography essentially unchanged from earlier descriptions, though the wooden piles were no longer visible, likely obscured by the deep covering of moss and organic material. Their survey also corrected the mound's mapped position, placing it approximately 18 metres west of where it had previously been recorded. The eastern slope of the mound is stepped and defined at its base by a drainage channel that curves northward. Three further drains, each roughly 600 to 700 millimetres wide, run across the top of the mound at intervals of about 7 metres, presumably cut to manage the boggy ground. The underlying soil, where exposed in drain sections, is dark brown humic peat. A ringfort lies about 280 metres to the south-west, suggesting a broader pattern of early settlement in this part of Westmeath.