Rather than a clearly defined circular enclosure rising from the landscape, what remains is a partial outline, a ghostly suggestion of a settlement that has been quietly losing ground to time, pasture, and quarrying.

The site is a rath, the most common type of early medieval enclosure in Ireland, typically consisting of a circular earthen bank and an outer ditch, known as a fosse, that would once have enclosed a farmstead or high-status dwelling. At Culliagh, the rath measures roughly 45 metres across and sits on a north-facing slope. Its enclosing elements are no longer uniform: a bank survives from the south-east around through the south and west, while a scarp, a natural or cut slope rather than a built-up bank, takes over from the north through the east and back to the south-east. The fosse can still be made out at the southern side. At the north-west, however, quarrying has eaten into the monument, removing whatever once stood there and leaving an irregular edge where there should be a clean curve. The disturbance is a reminder of how often these sites have been treated as convenient sources of stone or gravel rather than as survivals worth protecting.