This is a cashel, a type of ringfort constructed from dry-stone walling rather than earthen banks, and what survives here amounts to a wall standing only about forty centimetres high and nearly two metres wide, the compacted rubble of something that was once considerably more imposing. The enclosure measures around fifty metres in diameter, which places it at the larger end of such sites, and the commanding elevation that made it worth building here in the first place still does its job, even if no one has stood watch from it in a very long time.

Ringforts, of which Ireland has tens of thousands, were typically built during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries, and served as enclosed farmsteads or the residences of local lords rather than purely military fortifications. The stone-built variety, known as cashels or caiseal in Irish, are particularly associated with areas where field stone was more plentiful than the material needed for earthen raths. What makes this example quietly interesting is the presence of a square-shaped hut site within the interior, measuring about six and a half metres across. Square or rectangular structures inside ringforts are less commonly encountered than their circular counterparts, and their function is not always straightforward to interpret. The site was recorded as part of a local archaeological survey of the Ballinrobe district, covering the areas around Lough Mask and Lough Carra, compiled by D. Lavelle and published in 1994.