When the Ordnance Survey recorded it in 1842, it appeared as a complete circular enclosure, roughly forty metres across. By 1904 it had been reduced, on paper at least, to a D-shape. By 1938, only the eastern half was still clearly legible on the ground. What was once a full circle had become a half-remembered outline.

Ringforts, known in Irish as raths, were the most common form of enclosed settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically dating from somewhere between the fifth and twelfth centuries. They were built as farmsteads, their earthen banks defining a domestic space rather than a military one, though the bank and accompanying fosse, the external ditch, would have offered some deterrence to livestock raiders. This particular example sits on a slight rise above the flood plain of the River Blackwater, a position that would have made practical sense for both drainage and visibility. The western edge of the enclosure is not formed by a constructed bank at all but by a natural low cliff face, suggesting whoever built here took advantage of the existing topography rather than doing more earthwork than necessary. The surviving bank runs roughly north-north-east to south-south-west, standing about sixty-five centimetres above the interior and considerably more, around one and a half metres, on the exterior where the ground drops away. A shallow fosse accompanies it on the outside. The interior is now overgrown with scrub and trees, which both obscures the archaeology and, in a way, protects it from further erosion.