No earthwork rises from the field, no stones break the surface, no hollow suggests something lies beneath. The only way the site has ever been visible is from the air, and even then only under the right conditions.

The enclosure came to light through aerial photography in July 2005, when it appeared as a circular cropmark on farmland under tillage on a north-east-facing slope. Cropmarks of this kind form when buried archaeology interrupts the growth of crops above it; the buried ditches or banks of an enclosure retain moisture differently from the surrounding soil, so the vegetation above grows at a slightly different rate and colour, tracing the outline of whatever lies below. The result, invisible at eye level, can resolve itself with startling clarity when seen from altitude. A slight rise in the ground corresponds to the area of the enclosure, but to anyone walking the field, that barely perceptible change in gradient gives nothing away. The enclosure sits on a natural terrace within undulating terrain, a position that would have offered a measured outlook across the landscape, though what kind of structure it originally was, and when it was built, the ground itself has not yet disclosed.