At its centre sit the remains of a house site of indeterminate date, meaning nobody can say with confidence when it was built or by whom. What makes this more than an ordinary ruin is where it sits: inside a moated site, a category of monument that tends to raise more questions than it answers.

Moated sites are enclosures defined by a wide, water-filled or formerly water-filled ditch, and they were constructed in Ireland largely during the medieval period, often associated with Anglo-Norman settlement from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. They typically enclosed a domestic residence of some status, offering both practical protection and a visible signal of authority in the landscape. The Ardborra example follows the general pattern, with the house remains occupying the interior of the enclosure. More intriguing still is a very low curved bank also present within that interior, which may represent a second house site, suggesting the enclosure was used across more than one phase, or that more than one structure once shared the space. The qualification "may represent" is significant; the archaeology here has not been excavated, and the curved bank could tell a different story entirely once examined more closely. The site sits on a slight rise within otherwise low-lying ground, which would have given its occupants a clear view of the surrounding countryside in all directions, a practical advantage that moated-site builders seem to have valued consistently.