It is, in fact, a rath, the most common type of early medieval enclosure in Ireland, typically consisting of a circular bank and ditch enclosing a domestic settlement. This one measures roughly 25 metres across and slopes gently down toward the north-east, its entrance gap, just under three metres wide at the base, still legible at the ENE.

What gives the site a small additional layer of interest is its cartographic longevity. It appears on McCrea's map of County Monaghan, published in 1793, which means it was already considered a notable enough feature of the landscape to be recorded at a time when systematic Irish mapping was still in its early stages. It then reappears on the Ordnance Survey six-inch maps, those meticulous mid-nineteenth-century sheets that catalogued the Irish countryside in extraordinary detail. The earthen bank survives to a height of nearly two metres on its outer face, with a width of just under four metres on the eastern side, and there is an outer drain running from the ESE to the SSW. Unusually, no fosse, the ditch that typically accompanies such a bank, is visible here, which may reflect how the site was originally constructed or simply how it has weathered over the centuries since it was last in use.