That contrast, between the unremarkable surface and the pattern revealed only from altitude, is what makes this site quietly arresting.

The enclosure was identified through aerial photography as part of the Bruff Survey, recorded on Map 22 as Bruff 106. Described by Doody in 2008 as a subrectangular enclosure measuring approximately 60 metres by 40 metres, it is the shape itself that carries the most information. An enclosure, in this archaeological sense, is simply a defined area bounded by a bank, ditch, or wall, used for any number of purposes including settlement, ritual, or the keeping of livestock. The subrectangular form here, neither a true rectangle nor a rounded ringfort, points away from the early medieval period and towards something considerably older. Doody noted that the morphology of the site suggests a possible Bronze Age date, which would place its construction somewhere in the broad span between roughly 2500 and 500 BC. No excavation appears to have been carried out, so the enclosure's precise function and date remain open questions.

Because the site was identified from aerial photographs rather than through fieldwork, its features may not be legible on the ground at all during most of the year. Crop marks and soil marks, the traces that show up in aerial images when buried features affect the growth of vegetation above them, are often most visible during dry summers, when differences in soil moisture cause buried ditches or banks to produce slightly lusher or more stressed growth. A visitor to Fanningstown would need to know exactly where to look, and even then might find little to see beyond an ordinary field. The record compiled by Denis Power and uploaded in November 2013 is, for now, what this place mainly consists of: a co-ordinate, a reference number, a measurement, and a cautious suggestion that something very old lies underneath.