The only evidence of their existence comes from the air, where the buried ditches and banks leave faint differential marks on growing crops. These cropmarks, the kind that appear when vegetation over disturbed or compacted soil grows at a slightly different rate to the surrounding ground, are among the quieter tools of Irish field archaeology, revealing whole landscapes of ancient activity that leave no trace whatsoever at ground level.

The four enclosures range in diameter from roughly ten to twenty metres and sit close together on the slope, with a rectangular enclosure nearby adding a further layer of complexity to what may once have been a structured settlement or farming landscape. Circular enclosures of this type are broadly associated with early medieval Ireland, where they served as ringforts, small defended farmsteads enclosed by a bank and ditch. The rectangular neighbour is less typical and harder to classify without excavation. What drew attention to the site in the first place was aerial photography, specifically a photograph catalogued under the reference BDE 11, which captured the cropmark traces from above and made visible something that centuries of ploughing and weather had otherwise erased.