It is a rath, sometimes called a ringfort, the kind of enclosed farmstead that tens of thousands of Irish farming families lived within during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. A raised bank of earth defined the boundary of such a settlement, with a fosse, or ditch, dug around the outside to reinforce it. What makes this particular example worth pausing over is how intact it remains.

The rath measures 26.6 metres north to south and 21.6 metres east to west, making it a reasonably substantial example of the type. Its defining feature is the external fosse, which survives in legible form from the south-east, around through the south, and continuing to the north. That arc of surviving earthwork is more than many comparable sites can claim; raths across Ireland have been lost in great numbers to agricultural improvement, land clearance, and the general suspicion of raised ground that comes with working a field. The Galway Archaeological Survey recorded this one sitting on its rise in gently undulating terrain, surrounded by scrub and rough grassland, conditions that have likely contributed to its preservation.