The fort known as Cahercarbery More, or Cathair Cairbre Mór in Irish, meaning the stone fort of Cairbre, was not simply a place to retreat to in times of danger. People appear to have lived inside it, their modest circular dwellings built against or within the great stone wall that once enclosed the interior.

The site is one of two promontory forts in close proximity. Cahercarbery Beg, the smaller of the pair, lies about half a mile to the south. Cahercarbery More is the more elaborate structure, defined by three banks in total, the inner two built of stone rather than earth. A causeway approaches the interior from the east, and two fosses, the defensive ditches that often accompany such enclosures, add further layers of protection. The internal diameter east to west measures 80 metres, the external diameter 95 metres, and the stone wall itself extends for approximately 90 metres. These are substantial dimensions for a Kerry promontory fort. The hut sites recorded within the stone wall suggest that at some point, perhaps seasonally or permanently, the enclosure functioned as a settlement rather than a purely martial structure, though the precise date and nature of occupation remain unclear.

The Ordnance Survey maps mark the site clearly under its anglicised name, and C. Toal's North Kerry Archaeological Survey, published in 1995, provides the principal formal description of the complex. The pairing of two forts sharing the same territorial name, one larger, one smaller, and separated by only half a mile, raises questions about how they related to one another and what kind of community once maintained them both.