The oval form, originally measuring roughly 53 metres along its north-west to south-east axis and around 35 metres across, has been so extensively excavated for material that it now presents as a series of high banks along its northern, western, and southern edges rather than any coherent raised mass. A slight external fosse, a shallow ditch running around the outside, survives at the north and west, its flat base still faintly legible in the ground.

What the mound originally was remains an open question. By the time the Ordnance Survey recorded it in the Name Book for Ballynure parish between 1838 and 1840, it was already being called 'Dhoone Moat', a name that gestures towards a perceived antiquity without quite settling the matter. The word 'moat' in Irish placename usage of that period often attached itself to earthworks of various types, from medieval ringforts to motte-and-bailey castles, the latter being raised earthen mounds introduced by the Normans as platforms for timber fortifications. Whether this site belongs to that tradition, or to an older category of monument entirely, the quarrying has made it considerably harder to say. The removal of material over time, likely for agricultural or construction purposes, has stripped away much of the evidence that would have helped place it in any clear sequence.