On a south-east-facing slope in Garranturton, County Waterford, a roughly circular patch of grassland sits enclosed by an overgrown earthen bank that most walkers would take for a natural rise in the ground. It is only when you begin to measure the thing, or trace its curve, that the deliberate hand behind it becomes apparent.

The enclosure is subcircular in plan, running approximately 38 metres east to west and 35 metres north to south. The bank that defines it is substantial, particularly on the southern side, where it reaches a width of around 8 metres and stands some 2.35 metres above the exterior ground level, dropping to just 0.9 metres on the interior face. An entrance, roughly 3 metres wide, opens at the south-south-east. What is notably absent is a fosse, the accompanying ditch that typically flanks the bank of an earthwork enclosure and from which the upcast material was originally dug. Its absence here makes the site slightly harder to interpret. Embanked enclosures of this type are found across Ireland and are generally associated with early medieval settlement, sometimes enclosing a farmstead or a small ringfort-like habitation, though without excavation the date and purpose of any individual example remains an open question. The lack of a fosse may indicate a different construction method, a different function, or simply centuries of infilling and erosion.