The first edition Ordnance Survey recorded its outline, approximately thirty metres on the north-west to south-east axis and twenty-five metres on the north-east to south-west, but the land has since been brought into silage production and whatever earthwork or boundary once defined the feature has been absorbed entirely into the improved ground.

Enclosures of this kind are among the most common, and most varied, archaeological features in the Irish countryside. They may represent early medieval settlement enclosures, the enclosed plots that once surrounded a homestead, or sometimes the remains of earlier ritual or funerary boundaries. Without excavation it is impossible to say which category the Coolkenna example belongs to, and since nothing now breaks the surface, the first edition map remains the primary evidence that it existed at all. The site sits on a gentle north-east facing slope, with the ground dropping more steeply below towards marshy land, a position that would have offered a degree of natural drainage and a clear outlook, both practical considerations for anyone choosing a place to settle or enclose.

The enclosure lies along the northern edge of a public road, but a visitor scanning the pasture would find nothing to confirm its presence. The value here is less in what can be seen and more in the quiet fact that the landscape holds something the eye cannot reach.