Roughly 14.5 metres along its longer axis and rising only 0.8 metres from the surrounding ground, it sits within the enclosure in a way that suggests it was once something built rather than something natural, though the centuries have left the question open. The current thinking is that it may be the collapsed remains of a house, though the date of any such structure has not been established.

Ringforts, which were typically enclosed farmsteads of the early medieval period surrounded by one or more earthen banks, occasionally contain traces of internal structures, and it is not unusual for a raised platform within one to represent the footprint of a former dwelling, its walls long since fallen and absorbed back into the earth. What makes the Piercefield example quietly compelling is precisely how little can be said with certainty. The mound sits on a gentle north-west facing slope, with the land opening out to give good views west and north, while a ridge rises behind it to the south-east. About 600 metres to the west-south-west lies Templeoran Church and its associated graveyard, placing this inconspicuous earthwork within a broader landscape that was clearly occupied and organised over a long period, even if the specific story of whatever once stood here has not survived.