A fosse is a defensive or boundary ditch, typically dug around a settlement or enclosure in early medieval Ireland, and when soil that once filled such a ditch retains more moisture than the surrounding ground, the crops rooted above it grow taller or ripen at a slightly different rate. From the air, or in satellite imagery taken at the right moment in the growing season, that difference shows up as a distinct line or ring in the field, a cropmark tracing an outline that has otherwise long since vanished.

The enclosure came to attention when satellite imagery from Google Earth Pro, captured on 13 August 2015, revealed the circular cropmark with enough clarity to record its approximate dimensions and layout. The ring appears to have had a wide entrance, around 7 metres across, positioned in the south-south-west sector, which is a relatively common orientation for enclosures of this type in Ireland. A modern field boundary cuts across the northern portion, a reminder of how thoroughly later agricultural reorganisation can bisect and obscure earlier features without any awareness that something lies beneath. A second enclosure of similar character sits approximately 300 metres to the west-south-west, raising the possibility that this part of the Kilkenny landscape once carried a denser pattern of early settlement than the current fields would suggest.