The earthwork measures roughly 38 metres east to west and 36 metres north to south, making it a fairly typical example of a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, which was the most common form of rural homestead in early medieval Ireland. These enclosures, usually dating from somewhere between the sixth and tenth centuries, were built to define and protect a family's living space, their livestock, and their status within the landscape.

What survives here is an earthen bank rising to about 1.3 metres along the southern to north-north-western arc, with a lower rise completing the circuit elsewhere. Outside the bank runs a fosse, a shallow external ditch now at a maximum depth of around 0.55 metres, with a drain cut into it on the south-western side and continuing eastward along a field boundary. Beneath the ground, according to a reference by Ó Murchadha in 1967, there is also a souterrain associated with the site. A souterrain is an underground stone-lined passage or chamber, typically dug beneath or adjacent to a ringfort to serve as a cool store for food, or as a refuge in times of trouble. Their presence at a site often suggests a degree of permanence and investment in the original settlement, a household that intended to stay.

The view south-east over Myrtleville Bay is as clear today as it would have been to whoever lived within this enclosure more than a thousand years ago. Whether that prospect was chosen for the practical advantage of watching coastal approaches, or simply because south-facing slopes on the Cork shoreline tend to be the warmest and most sheltered ground for farming, is difficult to say. Probably both.