Most raths, the ringforts that pepper the Irish countryside as remnants of early medieval farmsteads and enclosures, consist of a single bank and fosse. This one has three, which places it in a category archaeologists describe as multivallate, a term simply meaning multiply walled or banked, and that distinction alone signals something more elaborate than the typical single-family enclosure.

The internal organisation of the site adds further interest. According to survey work recorded in C. Toal's North Kerry Archaeological Survey, published in 1995, the zone between the inner and outer rings along the north-east through east to south arc was possibly used for workshops and dwellings, a kind of sheltered working perimeter inside the defences. The northern and western sides, by contrast, appear to have been more heavily fortified, suggesting a deliberate defensive logic in how the enclosure was laid out. Whether the elevated position was chosen to command views of the surrounding land, to signal status, or to make approach from certain directions more difficult, the result is a monument whose layout still rewards a careful look even now.