The oval rath at Cloonmweelaun, Co. Galway, sits on a prominent rise in undulating grassland, and would once have commanded the surrounding landscape in the manner typical of these early medieval enclosures. A rath is an earthen ringfort, usually formed by one or more circular or oval banks and ditches, and used in early medieval Ireland as a farmstead or settlement enclosure. This one measures roughly 37 metres north to south and 22 metres east to west, making it a modest but respectable example of the type.

What distinguishes Cloonmweelaun from the many raths that survive in better condition across the west of Ireland is how much has already gone. The enclosure is now defined primarily by a scarp, a natural-looking slope or edge in the ground that marks where the original earthworks once stood, rather than by any upstanding bank or ditch. At the south-east, even that faint trace disappears entirely. Claffey, writing in 1983, attributed the loss to extensive quarrying, which over time removed the material that had held the form of the fort together. The elevated position that made the site strategically attractive in the early medieval period presumably also made it a convenient source of stone or gravel for later generations with more practical concerns.