A cashel is a type of early medieval stone ringfort, its boundary defined not by an earthen bank but by a drystone wall, and this one, some 35 metres in diameter, once had walls roughly 1.8 metres thick. By the time archaeologists first recorded it in September 1983, those walls had fallen to no more than 30 to 40 centimetres above the ground, and the enclosure had been further compromised by field walls cutting straight through it at the north-west and south-east.

What makes the site's recent history particularly telling is what happened between the two recorded inspections. When archaeologists returned in May 1991, they found that land clearance work in the surrounding area had resulted in rubble being dumped directly against the outer face of the cashel's eastern half. The monument lies some 25 metres north-west of a larger enclosure nearby, suggesting this part of Galway was once a focus of early settlement activity. Despite its deteriorated condition, the site carries a preservation order under the National Monuments Acts, which at least places it formally beyond the reach of deliberate interference, even if the cumulative pressures of farming have already taken a considerable toll.