What makes it quietly anomalous is its scale: the enclosure measures roughly 68 metres north to south and 66 metres east to west, which puts it well outside the range of an ordinary ringfort. Two earth and stone banks define its perimeter, separated by a fosse, a shallow ditch running between them, an arrangement that suggests something more deliberate than a simple farmstead enclosure.

The earliest known record of the monument appears on an estate map dated 1798, held in the National Library of Ireland, where a circular earthwork is clearly marked on Carne Hill. That cartographic evidence tells us the structure was recognised as a feature of the landscape long before archaeological surveying began in earnest, though it offers no explanation of origin or purpose. Today the interior is uneven and slopes from north to south and east, and the western to northern stretch of the perimeter has been disturbed by quarrying, which has eroded what would otherwise be a remarkably intact circuit. Whether the enclosure served a ceremonial function, acted as a large enclosure for livestock, or belonged to some earlier phase of territorial organisation is not known from the available evidence.