It is a ringfort, or at least the remains of one, and what makes it quietly interesting is how much of it has endured while the landscape around it has slowly pressed in. An earthen bank, still standing nearly two metres high on its outer face, traces the perimeter of a space measuring roughly 42 metres by 37.5 metres. Two original entrances survive, one facing roughly northeast and one facing east-northeast, their widths still measurable at just over two metres and one and a half metres respectively.

Ringforts are among the most common archaeological monuments in Ireland, with tens of thousands recorded across the island. They were typically built during the early medieval period, between roughly the fifth and twelfth centuries, and served primarily as enclosed farmsteads rather than military fortifications, the bank and any accompanying fosse, or ditch, offering a degree of security for livestock and household alike. The Rakeeragh example is unusual in having no visible fosse, which may reflect local drainage conditions on the drumlin, or simply the degree to which the surrounding land has been modified over the centuries. Agricultural field banks had encroached on the perimeter from at least six directions at the time of the original survey published in the Archaeological Inventory of County Monaghan in 1986, though by 2000 this had been reduced to four points of encroachment, suggesting some degree of clearance in the intervening years.

The drumlin setting is worth noting in itself. Drumlins, the smooth elongated hills formed from glacial till and scattered thickly across counties like Monaghan, Cavan, and Fermanagh, were favoured locations for early settlement, offering dry, elevated ground above boggy hollows. Placing a fort at the eastern end of such a ridge would have given its inhabitants a clear view down the slope and across the lower ground beyond.