It measures roughly 28.7 metres east to west and 19.4 metres north to south, standing about 1.5 metres at its highest point. That is modest by any reckoning, yet the mound has a quiet geometry to it: the sides are steepest at the north-east and south, a narrow ledge about two metres wide runs around the north-west to north-east of the slope at roughly 0.4 metres above ground level, and the top surface tilts gently downward toward the west. These are not the contours of natural ground settling over centuries. Something deliberate was made here.

Earthworks of this kind are scattered throughout County Kerry, and without excavation their origins remain genuinely open. The term earthwork covers a broad range of constructed features, from the enclosures that once surrounded early medieval farmsteads to burial mounds to platforms associated with activity long since vanished from the historical record. The particular combination of features at Rusheen, the ledge partway up the slope, the asymmetry of the steeper faces, and the tilted summit, suggests a level of intentional shaping rather than simple accumulation. Whether it began as a raised enclosure, a focal point in a now-invisible field system, or something else entirely, the mound sits in its pasture without offering an easy answer.