Yet this subcircular enclosure in Cloonnacusha, east Galway, is precisely that kind of site, one whose significance lies not in dramatic stonework but in its geometry and its relationship with the land around it. The Kilcrow River curves around it from the north-west, continues east, and sweeps south, so that the monument sits within a natural arc of water, a pattern that would have made the low earthwork considerably more formidable in earlier centuries than the gentle ridge visible today suggests.

The enclosure measures roughly 98.7 metres east to west and 86.8 metres north to south, making it a substantial ringfort. Ringforts, which are enclosed farmsteads typically of early medieval date, are among the most common archaeological monument types in Ireland, but size varies enormously, and a diameter approaching a hundred metres places this one towards the larger end of the scale. The defining feature is a scarp, an earthen slope or bank cut from the natural ground surface, here standing about 0.8 metres high. A later field wall has been laid directly on top of this original boundary, blurring the earlier form but also, in a practical sense, preserving it. The two gaps visible at the south and west are modern breaks rather than original entrances. The site is noted in Killanin and Duignan's 1967 guide to the monuments and antiquities of Ireland, which remains a useful reference for sites across the country.