It is easy to walk past without registering it at all, which is partly what makes it worth registering.

The enclosure at Gortnaclohy is an oval earthwork, measuring roughly 35 metres north to south and 22 metres east to west. An earthen bank defines its perimeter, standing only about 20 centimetres above the interior ground level but rising to around half a metre on the outside, where it would have presented a more meaningful face to the world beyond. Around the western and southern arc of the enclosure, an external fosse accompanies the bank; a fosse being simply a ditch dug to reinforce a boundary, often using the spoil to build up the bank beside it. Here the fosse is modest, about 1.2 metres wide and 20 centimetres deep, but still legible in the ground. On the eastern side, the man-made ditch gives way to a natural gully that follows the same line, as though the builders recognised what the landscape was already offering and incorporated it into their design. The interior is level and grassed over. Denis Power compiled the record of the site, which was uploaded in August 2011.

The enclosure sits in level pasture, which means there is no dramatic topography to help a visitor orient themselves. The low profile of the bank is the thing to look for, a gentle swell in the grass that resolves itself, once you are standing at the right angle, into a coherent oval shape. The natural gully on the eastern side is worth following, as the transition from dug fosse to natural feature is one of the more legible moments in the whole structure. There is no formal access or signage, and because the earthwork is so shallow, it reads better under low winter or early morning light, when raking shadows bring the ground relief into sharper focus.