A promontory fort is exactly what it sounds like: a headland or coastal spur made defensible, usually by cutting off its landward approach with a bank, a ditch, or both. Here, what survives is barely more than a suggestion of that arrangement, a low collapsed earthen bank and a trace of a fosse, that is, a defensive ditch, running close to the northern cliff edge at the neck of the headland.

When Casey recorded the site in 2002, the description was careful to acknowledge its ambiguity. The headland is subrectangular in shape and sits just north of another coastal enclosure known as the Lisheen promontory fort. Near the northeastern corner of the interior, a roughly circular enclosure about nine metres across was noted, defined by a slight fosse and inner scarp. What this feature represents is genuinely uncertain. It could relate to the defence of the headland itself, or it could be the remains of a kelp-burning site, a quite different kind of use. Kelp was harvested from Irish shores for centuries and burned in stone or earthen pits to produce ash used in the manufacture of glass and soap, so the physical traces of that industry can sometimes resemble the earthworks left by much older activity. A modern bank now cuts off the headland at the cliff edge, adding one more layer of alteration to a landscape already difficult to read. The surrounding ground is flat, fertile pasture crossed by earthen banks and field walls, and the shore can be reached directly from the interior of the headland.