The result was a ringfort, or rath, the kind of enclosed farmstead that once dotted early medieval Ireland in its thousands. Here, the circular interior measures roughly 25 metres east to west, the ground levelled by cutting into the hill itself, a technique known as scarping. Around that flattened space ran an earth and stone bank, and beyond the bank a fosse, a defensive ditch, though both have weathered considerably over the centuries.

What survives today is modest but legible if you know what to look for. The bank has been largely reduced to a low scarp, still standing about 1.5 metres high in places, and the fosse, once perhaps dug to discourage cattle thieves or rival neighbours, remains visible on the northern and eastern sides, approximately 1.5 metres wide and half a metre deep. No original entrance feature has been identified, which is not unusual given the degree of erosion across the site. The choice of an upland hillock, rather than a purpose-built mound, points to a practical mind at work: the natural topography did some of the labour, while the scarping and enclosure added the security and definition that daily life in early medieval Ireland seemed to require.