Most ringforts, the circular enclosed farmsteads that dot the Irish countryside in their thousands, survive mainly as earthen banks, their original facing long since robbed out or eroded away. Here, on a rise in north Kerry, sections of the enclosing bank on either side of the western entrance retain their stone facing on both inner and outer sides, a detail that gives a clearer sense than usual of how deliberately and carefully these structures were originally built.

A ringfort, sometimes called a rath when earthen in construction, was typically the fortified homestead of an early medieval farming family, most dating to roughly the period between the fifth and twelfth centuries. This example is univallate, meaning it has a single enclosing bank rather than the two or three concentric rings seen at higher-status sites. That bank is substantial: five metres wide at the base, rising up to three metres above the surrounding ground, with the interior sitting slightly higher than the land outside, giving the whole enclosure a quietly commanding presence on the landscape. The entrance, facing west and just under three metres wide, has stone facing surviving for ten metres along the bank to its north and for 7.4 metres to its south. The site sits in a field corner in Ballinglanna, with later field boundaries encroaching on its eastern side, a common fate for monuments that farmers have worked around rather than through for generations.

The bank is described as well defined but somewhat overgrown, which is worth bearing in mind for anyone approaching across the surrounding farmland. The elevated position means the view outward is wide, and it is not difficult to understand why someone chose this particular patch of rising ground.