This is a rath, a type of enclosed farmstead built during the early medieval period, typically between the fifth and twelfth centuries, when such ringforts served as the fortified homesteads of farming families and local lords. What makes this one worth pausing over is the degree to which its physical form has survived: two earthen banks still define the enclosure, separated by a fosse, the ditch dug to create the banks in the first place, measuring approximately 38.5 metres east to west and 32 metres north to south.

The fosse survives along the south-east through west to north-east arc of the enclosure, while the outer bank remains visible from the south-west around through to the north-west. Beneath the interior, in the north-west quadrant, there is a souterrain, an underground stone-lined passage or chamber that would have been used for storage, refuge, or both. Souterrains are commonly found within raths across Ireland, though their exact functions likely varied from site to site. Their presence is generally taken as evidence that a rath was a place of some consequence, occupied by people with enough resources and social standing to undertake the considerable labour of their construction.