It does not appear on any historic mapping, named or otherwise, which places it in a curious category of sites that existed quietly outside the administrative gaze of even the most thorough nineteenth-century surveys. That omission alone makes it worth a second look.

The enclosure measures roughly 18 metres on its longer axis and 16 metres across, defined by a bank of earth and stone that is, where it can actually be seen, around six metres wide overall. The interior is largely level, which is consistent with a domestic or agricultural use at some point, though the surface rock outcropping close beneath the ground here would have made any deep digging difficult. A second, linear bank extends to the north-west and appears to abut the enclosure, suggesting the two features were at some stage connected, perhaps as part of a small agricultural or pastoral arrangement. Enclosures of this general type, low earthen and stone banks enclosing a roughly circular or sub-circular space, are found throughout Ireland and are often associated with early medieval settlement, though without excavation it is impossible to say more about date or function here.

What is perhaps most striking about the Lissofin enclosure is how thoroughly the landscape has reclaimed it. Thorn tree thickets and dense field boundaries block most views of the surrounding area from within the site, and the bank itself is intermittently obscured by growth described as impenetrable for much of its circuit. The interior is covered in tall clumps of briars. This is a place that has been swallowed rather than preserved, legible more as a shape in the land than as a structure, and all the more interesting for it.