Its defining wall has long since collapsed into a low, moss-and-sod-covered spread of stone, rarely rising more than forty centimetres from the ground and stretching about two metres wide. The whole structure measures roughly forty-five metres north to south and thirty-six metres east to west, with what appears to be an original entrance gap, three metres across, at the east-north-east. What lifts it out of the ordinary is the topography it inhabits: the northern two-thirds of the enclosure sit on the flat terrace, while the southern third incorporates a slope that drops nearly three metres from the enclosing bank down into the interior, giving the space an unexpectedly theatrical quality from within.

Enclosures of this kind, broadly circular or oval stone-walled areas, are found throughout Ireland and can date from the early medieval period or earlier, used variously as farmsteads, cattle enclosures, or ecclesiastical precincts. At Farranyharpy the interior holds two further features worth noting. In the level north-west quadrant there is a low, grass-covered stony rise, small in extent at roughly four metres by three, whose original function is unclear but which may represent the footprint of a structure. More conspicuous is a linear spread of large stones running approximately twelve metres eastward from the western enclosing wall towards the centre of the enclosure, suggesting some internal division or pathway once existed. The site sits in current pasture and grazing land, and the limestone geology beneath gives the whole terrace a pale, close-cropped quality that makes these surface traces easier to read than they might otherwise be.

The setting rewards attention in its own right. The terrace faces north across a broad sweep of coastal grassland, and on a clear day the silhouettes of Benbulbin to the north-east and Knocknarae to the east-north-east sit on the horizon, two of the most geologically distinctive landforms in the west of Ireland. Benbulbin's flat-topped carboniferous limestone profile and Knocknarae's cairn-crowned summit are visible from a great deal of County Sligo, but to see both framed together from within the low ruined walls of an ancient enclosure, standing on the same limestone that built them, gives the view a particular kind of depth.