This is a promontory fort, a type of enclosure common along the Irish coastline in which the sea does much of the defensive work, leaving only the landward approach to be blocked by human construction. The result is a naturally fortified space created with relatively modest effort, and this example follows that logic precisely.

The earthwork that defines the fort on its landward side runs for 86 metres and reaches nearly two metres in height on its outer face, with a shallow fosse, essentially a ditch, dug in front of it to increase the effective obstacle. The bank extends from the south-western edge for 52 metres, and a causeway entrance roughly four metres wide sits about 30 metres in from that same edge, suggesting a deliberate and controlled point of passage rather than a casual gap. Parts of the bank are stone-faced, indicating some care in its original construction or later maintenance, and an earthen field boundary running along its top suggests the feature was later pressed into service as an agricultural divide, a common fate for prehistoric earthworks that remained visible and useful long after their original purpose was forgotten. The interior slopes upward from the bank toward a level area at the seaward end, meaning anyone standing there would have had an unobstructed view over Newfoundland Bay, a name that itself hints at the layered history of this stretch of the Cork coastline.