It is only when you begin to measure and examine it that its deliberate geometry becomes clear: a roughly circular area about 16.6 metres across, defined by an earthen bank that stands no more than half a metre above the surrounding ground on its outer face and a modest quarter of a metre on the interior.

Enclosures of this kind, broadly circular earthworks defined by a bank and sometimes a fosse (a ditch dug to reinforce or supplement the bank), are found across Ireland and belong to a long tradition of enclosed settlement and land management stretching back through the early medieval period and beyond. The shallow depressions visible to the east and west of this example may be the degraded remains of just such an external fosse, though centuries of agricultural use and natural erosion have reduced any original ditch to little more than a faint trace in the turf. The north side of the enclosure shows signs of quarrying, which has disturbed the bank there and removed whatever structural clarity that portion might once have offered. It is a common fate for earthworks in areas where loose stone or compacted earth had practical value to later farmers and builders.