It is, in fact, a rath, an early medieval enclosed settlement of the sort once common across Ireland, typically built between roughly the fifth and twelfth centuries. What makes this particular example worth pausing over is its state of preservation and its scale: at approximately 42 metres in diameter, it is a substantial enclosure, and it retains not one but two earthen banks with a fosse, or ditch, running between them.

The double-bank arrangement sets it apart from the more typical single-banked rath. A rath of this form, sometimes called a bivallate rath, generally suggests either a higher-status settlement or a site where the occupants felt a particular need for defensive depth. The fosse between the two banks would have made any approach to the interior significantly more difficult, channelling movement and adding an extra physical obstacle before the inner bank was even reached. Whether that reflects genuine threat or simply the ambitions of a local lord is impossible to say without excavation, but the earthworks themselves speak to a community that invested real effort in this place.