Overgrown and degraded, it belongs to a class of monument known as a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, which was the typical form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, roughly from the fifth to the twelfth century. Thousands were built across the country, enclosing a homestead within a raised earthen bank and an outer ditch, or fosse, that together served as a boundary and modest defensive barrier. At Loughbown, that basic structure is still legible, if only just.

What survives is a degraded bank and a shallow external fosse that can be traced from the north-east around through the east to the south-east. A gap of around 6.5 metres at the east-south-east may represent the original entrance, though it is impossible to say so with certainty given the monument's condition. Along the south-west, west, and north-west sections, a later field bank has been built directly over the enclosing elements, obscuring them beneath agricultural infrastructure that post-dates the ringfort by centuries. To the east, quarrying has eaten further into the monument, compounding the damage. The site also sits roughly 100 metres south-east of a separate ringfort, suggesting this part of Loughbown once held more than one such enclosure, a pattern not unusual in areas of early medieval settlement where adjacent family groups or successive generations established their own compounds in relatively close proximity.