That combination, earth rampart and ditch guarding a natural promontory, is the defining feature of a coastal promontory fort, a form of enclosed settlement used in Ireland from the Iron Age onward. The neck of land being defended here is only thirty metres wide, which made the task of fortifying it relatively modest; nature did most of the work, with the interior ground dropping steeply away to both north and south.

When the antiquarian T. J. Westropp visited and recorded the site in 1921, he noted that the earthen bank was faced with fairly large slabs of stone, giving it a more formal, constructed appearance than a simple dumped earthwork. Those facing stones are no longer visible, lost either to robbing, collapse, or gradual burial over the intervening century. Westropp also does not appear to have recorded the field fence that now encloses the interior, suggesting that feature is a later addition. Perhaps the most intriguing element is a possible souterrain identified inside the bank to the south-east. A souterrain is an underground stone-lined passage or chamber, typically associated with early medieval settlement and used variously for storage, refuge, or ventilation of an adjoining structure. Its presence, if confirmed, would hint at activity within the fort well beyond its initial construction.