The bank, roughly circular and measuring about 25.6 metres north to south and 25 metres east to west, is barely a metre high on its outer face and considerably less on the inside. Much of it has worn down over centuries of weather and use, but the northern arc survives in better shape, sheltered where an old field boundary runs up against its outer edge. On the western inner face, remnants of a rough stone kerb are still visible, suggesting the bank was once more carefully constructed than its present, weathered state implies.

Raths, also known as ringforts, were the typical enclosed farmsteads of early medieval Ireland, generally dating from roughly the fifth to the twelfth centuries. Circular banks of earth or stone defined a domestic space, sometimes housing a family and their animals, and the interior here is level, with faint traces of cultivation ridges running on a northwest to southeast axis, a quiet sign of agricultural activity long after the enclosure itself may have gone out of use. More striking is the presence of a souterrain, an underground stone-lined passage or chamber associated with storage or refuge, whose entrance opens in the southwest quadrant of the interior. A slight depression to the west of centre likely marks the line of the same underground feature. The site does not stand alone: another rath lies approximately 130 metres to the south-southeast, hinting that this part of Carrowgarve once supported a small cluster of early medieval settlement, set above the surrounding mix of pasture and bog with enough elevation to survey the landscape in most directions.