About twenty-five metres in diameter and positioned at the edge of a steep drop down to a stream, the earthwork has been so thoroughly softened by time that it leaves no trace visible at ground level. Locally, it goes by the name "The Moat", a term applied in rural Ireland to all manner of raised or enclosed earthworks, often without any particular medieval association intended.

Circular enclosures of this kind are among the most common, and most ambiguous, features in the Irish archaeological landscape. They may represent early medieval ringforts, the enclosed farmsteads that were the basic unit of rural settlement from roughly the fifth to the twelfth century, or they may be something older altogether. Without excavation it is rarely possible to say. What makes this one quietly interesting is less its form than its setting: the combination of a defended perimeter and a natural drop to water on one side is a pattern seen repeatedly in early Irish settlement, where topography and earthwork reinforced each other. The name Toberpatrick itself suggests a holy well dedication to Saint Patrick somewhere in the vicinity, which adds a further, if unverifiable, layer to the character of the place.