The feature in question is a cashel, a type of ringfort built from drystone rather than earthen banks, and this one has fared poorly against time and agricultural convenience. Its circular wall, once dry-laid without mortar in the tradition of stone enclosures built across Ireland roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries, has collapsed to the point where a later field boundary has simply been laid on top of it, absorbing the ancient structure into the working landscape.

The cashel measures approximately 20.5 metres in diameter, placing it within the modest range typical of single-farmstead enclosures of its period, the kind of place that would once have sheltered a family, their livestock, and perhaps a small cluster of outbuildings. What makes the Carrowgarriff site slightly more legible than its condition might suggest is the presence of a secondary enclosure abutting its southern side. This roughly rectangular annex, around 15 metres long and 12 metres wide, is defined by a low drystone wall and is still traceable on the ground. Such annexes are not unusual in cashel complexes; they are thought to have served as pens for animals or as working yards associated with the main enclosure. The site sits on a gentle rise amid outcropping rock and grassland, the kind of terrain that characterises much of this part of Galway, where the underlying geology is never far from the surface and stone was always the obvious building material. It was recorded by McCaffrey in 1952.