Easy to overlook from a distance, and easy to mistake for a natural quirk of the landscape, it is in fact an earthen enclosure of the kind that punctuates the Irish countryside with quiet frequency, though this one has been quietly absorbed into the working farmland around it in ways that have left their mark on its fabric.

The enclosure at Fawnamore is oval in plan, measuring roughly 36.6 metres north to south and 47 metres east to west. It is defined by an earthen bank, a constructed boundary of piled earth and soil that once stood more prominently in the landscape. The outer face of the bank still reaches about 1.3 metres in height at points, while the interior face is considerably lower, around 0.55 metres, suggesting either natural settling over time or a long history of disturbance. What makes the site particularly legible as a palimpsest of land use is the way the surrounding field boundaries have been laid directly against it, cutting across and truncating the outer face of the bank on almost every side. The original enclosure has, in effect, been parcelled into the corner of a small field, its edges trimmed by the logic of later agriculture. The record was compiled by Denis Power and uploaded in August 2011.

Visitors approaching on foot should expect soft, potentially waterlogged ground, particularly after rain, given the marshy character of the surrounding pasture. The interior of the enclosure slopes gently downward toward its centre, a detail worth noting underfoot, and two farm trackways cross it, running roughly south-west to north and south-east to north-east respectively. These tracks are in active use and are part of a working farm, so access should be sought with that in mind. The bank itself is most visible from outside the field boundary, where its external profile is better preserved. Late winter or early spring, before vegetation thickens, tends to offer the clearest view of earthworks like this one.