From its summit, the Rock of Cashel is clearly visible to the north-north-east, which raises an immediate question about why this particular rise was chosen and what, exactly, was built here. The enclosure is oval in plan, measuring roughly 59 metres north to south and 54 metres east to west, defined by an earthen bank with an entrance gap at the north-east. A U-shaped fosse, the defensive or boundary ditch that typically runs around the outside of such earthworks, survives best on the north-north-west to west-south-west arc, though later field boundaries have cut across part of it. Inside, a low rise set slightly off-centre toward the north may be the collapsed remains of a structure, though nothing has been excavated to confirm what it once was.

What makes the site quietly strange is its neighbourhood. A rectangular enclosure sits just a metre and a half to the east, and roughly 25 metres to the north-east there are the remains of a leper hospital. Leper hospitals in medieval Ireland were typically positioned outside town boundaries, close enough to receive alms and charity but separated from the general population. Their placement near prominent hilltop enclosures is not unheard of, though the relationship between these particular monuments remains unexplained. A ring of mature trees around the outer edge of the fosse may preserve traces of a further outer bank, visible on the northern to east-south-east arc, suggesting the enclosure was once a more elaborate and possibly multi-phase construction than its present, worn appearance implies. The eastern side of the bank has also been significantly disturbed by a large excavated area, the origins of which are unrecorded.