What makes them unusual is not any single dramatic feature but the fact of their number and their consistency: nine structures, all broadly similar in form, gathered within the same modest stretch of forested land.

Each enclosure follows the same basic pattern, a circular platform roughly six metres across, defined either by a ring of boulders or stones, or by a low bank of peat, with a shallow external fosse, that is, a ditch running around the outside perimeter. This kind of earthwork is sometimes described as a ringfort type, though the term "enclosure" is used here more cautiously, reflecting some uncertainty about function and date. The nine are collectively known as the Fionnán enclosures, named for the townland context in which they occur. Their uniformity suggests they were not built at random or at very different periods; the similarity in size, shape, and construction across all nine points to some shared purpose or tradition, even if that purpose is no longer clearly legible in the landscape.