Its purpose is not recorded, and that ambiguity is part of what makes the site worth a second look.

The enclosure itself is a rath, the Irish term for a roughly circular earthen ringfort, a type of enclosed settlement built predominantly during the Early Medieval period, roughly the fifth to twelfth centuries. This example measures approximately 32 metres east to west and 30 metres north to south, giving it a subcircular rather than perfectly round form. It is defined by two banks with a fosse, or ditch, running between them, a configuration that suggests a degree of effort in its original construction. The northern and eastern sections have largely disappeared at ground level, with no visible surface trace surviving from the north-north-east around through the east to the south-south-east. Whether that loss is down to ploughing, settlement, or simple erosion over a thousand or more years is unclear. A gap of four metres in the south-western bank may be an original entrance, the point through which people and animals once passed in and out. About a hundred metres to the south-east, a second ringfort occupies the same landscape, suggesting this corner of north Galway was once more densely settled than its current quietness implies.