Ringforts, or raths, were enclosed farmsteads of the early medieval period, typically circular earthworks built to define and defend a family's living space, and water running through the defensive perimeter rather than around it gives this one an immediately odd character. The site sits in pasture on a gentle north-west-facing slope in the townland of Barna, about fifty metres south-west of a watercourse that also marks the boundary with the neighbouring townland of Baunteen, and from its slightly elevated position it commands open views across a broad westward to north-eastward arc.

The rath was recorded on the 1897 edition of the Ordnance Survey Ireland 25-inch map as a raised, roughly circular area defined by a scarp, though by that point its north-western side had already been clipped by a field boundary that post-dates 1700. When the Archaeological Survey of Ireland examined it in 1999, surveyors recorded a circular enclosure roughly thirty metres in diameter, with a bank on the north-east through to south-west arc measuring about 2.4 metres wide, and a second, external bank on the northern through to southern arc around three metres wide, with an intervening fosse, or ditch, two metres wide at its base running between them. A possible original entrance gap, about 4.1 metres wide, appears at the south, and a more recent gap of 1.5 metres sits at the south-east. A separate enclosure lies roughly 175 metres to the north, suggesting this part of Barna held some density of early activity. The record was compiled by Fiona Rooney and uploaded in November 2021.

The interior today is level but wet and densely overgrown, so productive inspection from within is unlikely without appropriate footwear and some patience. The monument is tree-covered and visible on aerial imagery, including Digital Globe and Google Earth orthoimages taken between 2011 and 2013, which gives a clearer sense of the overall form than a ground-level visit might allow. Accessing it means crossing working farmland, so landowner permission is the obvious first step. The stream that intersects the western to northern arc is worth noting on approach; following it gives a useful sense of how the monument's boundary sits in the wider drainage pattern of the townland.