The enclosure at Derrywode, on a south-west-facing slope in County Galway, barely manages that. What survives is a series of curved banks of earth and stone, visible at the south-east and along the south-west to west arc of what was once a roughly circular enclosure measuring approximately 42 metres across its north-north-west to south-south-east axis. A later field wall cuts across the northern and southern ends, and everywhere else the ground is simply grass. There is no dramatic outline, no silhouette on the horizon.

Enclosures of this kind are among the most common monument types in the Irish landscape. They are generally understood to represent the enclosed farmsteads of early medieval Ireland, the ringfort tradition, though the category is broad and some examples are considerably older or served different purposes. At Derrywode, the original circuit was subcircular rather than a precise ring, which is not unusual; many such enclosures followed the natural contours of the land rather than any strict geometric plan. What is unusual here is the degree to which the monument has been reduced. Even by the standards of poorly preserved examples, very little remains. The field wall that bisects the site to the north and south is the clearest sign that working agricultural land gradually consumed whatever earthworks once defined the place. The curving fragments that do survive represent perhaps a quarter or less of the original perimeter.