What gives it away, to anyone who knows what to look for, are three fragments of quernstones built into that ruinous wall. Quernstones were the paired grinding stones used to mill grain by hand, and their presence here, incorporated into the structure itself rather than discarded nearby, hints at the domestic life that once took place within these walls.

This is a cashel, the Irish term for a ringfort enclosed by stone rather than an earthen bank and ditch. Ringforts were the predominant form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically serving as the fortified homestead of a farming family of some local standing. This particular example measures roughly 24.7 metres north to south and 23.9 metres east to west, with a wall some 2.5 metres thick at its base. A gap in the southern side, about 1.5 metres wide, marks what was almost certainly the original entrance. Against the inner face of the wall, the remains of two subrectangular structures are still traceable, one to the northeast running about 5 metres in length, another to the south at roughly 2.9 metres. These would have been outbuildings or ancillary shelters of some kind, leaned against the enclosing wall in a manner common to sites of this type. A shift in vegetation patterns sweeping from the southwest around to the north may indicate the presence of a second, outer wall, now entirely collapsed into the ground. Perhaps the most intriguing detail is a possible souterrain near the centre of the enclosure, a souterrain being an underground passage or chamber, often stone-lined, that served for storage or concealment. Taken together, these features suggest a settlement of some complexity, more than a simple pen or enclosure.