The earthwork is a modest thing by any measure, a D-shaped mound roughly 8.8 metres north to south and 6.4 metres east to west, with the stream defining one edge and the fence another. Yet the precision of its shape, and the cluster of features gathered around it, suggest this corner of West Cork was once a good deal busier than it appears today.

The site carries a few quiet details worth attention. A drain-like feature, about a quarter of a metre high and two-thirds of a metre wide, projects westward out of the boundary fence, hinting at some form of water management or structural edge that predates the current field system. A little to the east of the fence stands a single upright stone, not especially tall at 43 centimetres, oriented with its long axis running north to south. Solitary standing stones like this one appear across Ireland in a range of contexts, sometimes marking boundaries, sometimes associated with earlier ritual or agricultural activity, and their function is rarely settled with certainty. What makes the Bawnishall site particularly interesting is the presence, just on the eastern side of the same fence, of a fulacht fiadh. These are burnt mound sites, among the most common prehistoric monuments in Ireland, typically associated with the Bronze Age and understood as the remains of outdoor cooking or possibly bathing places, where water was heated by dropping fire-cracked stones into a trough. The proximity of the fulacht fiadh to the earthwork and the upright stone suggests the area saw repeated or sustained use over time, with the stream that now helps define the mound's southern edge likely the same reliable water source that made it attractive to people long before any fence was drawn across the ground.