That fact alone gives the place an unusual quality: a modern building of worship occupying the exact footprint of a far older one. The ringfort, or enclosure, is recorded on the Ordnance Survey six-inch map of 1840 as a roughly circular earthwork measuring approximately 46 metres north to south and 42 metres east to west, enclosed by a wide fosse, which is simply a defensive ditch dug around the perimeter. By the time the 25-inch map edition was published in 1897, the monument had already been levelled, vanishing from the cartographic record between those two survey dates.

What the nineteenth-century maps took away, archaeology has partially restored. When the Archaeological Survey of Ireland visited the site in 2007, surveyors found no surface remains of the original earthwork, though they noted a slight depression marking the approximate location of the monument. A curvilinear field boundary running to the east of the church was identified as a possible remnant of the outer enclosing element. Testing carried out in 2009 by archaeologist Brian Halpin, under licence number 08E1011, investigated the footprint of a proposed parochial centre adjacent to the church. Two trenches revealed extensive modern disturbance throughout, most probably caused by the construction of the church itself. Halpin concluded that any trace of the enclosing ditch in that specific area had likely been removed during building work, though he noted that portions of the ditch or associated features might still survive elsewhere on the site.

The church sits roughly 330 metres east of the summit of Kilteely Hill, which rises to about 580 feet above sea level. There is nothing dramatically visible on the ground today, which is, in its own way, the point. A curving field boundary approximately 20 metres east of the church is the most tangible surviving trace of the original enclosure, running from the north-east around to the east. It reads easily enough once you know what to look for, a gentle arc in the hedgerow that seems slightly out of keeping with the surrounding field pattern. The slight depression noted by ASI surveyors may also be discernible underfoot in the churchyard itself, depending on conditions and the season.