Ringforts, the most common monument type in the Irish landscape, are enclosed farmsteads dating broadly from the early medieval period, typically defined by one or more earthen banks and ditches. This one has effectively vanished from the surface, yet it has not entirely disappeared.

The site appeared clearly on the first edition Ordnance Survey six-inch map, published in 1837, drawn as a circular earthwork. By the time later editions of the OS maps were produced, it had been omitted, suggesting that the banks had already been levelled or had degraded sufficiently to escape the surveyors' notice. It was only in November 2011, when aerial photography captured the ground from above, that the outline re-emerged. Cropmarks and soilmarks of this kind appear when buried features affect the growth of grass or crops above them, leaving traces that are invisible at ground level but legible from altitude. A second ringfort lies roughly 240 metres to the south-south-east, indicating that this slope above the Gaine was settled country in early medieval times.