What survives is a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, a type of enclosed settlement built predominantly during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries, when such circular enclosures served as farmsteads for families of some local standing. This one retains its defining bank in reasonable condition, an uncommon enough outcome given the centuries of agricultural pressure that have levelled so many comparable sites across the west of Ireland.

The enclosure measures just under twenty-five metres in diameter, a modest but not insignificant size for a rath of this kind. Its roughly circular bank defines the perimeter, and a gap on the east-southeast side may represent the original entrance, orientations in this general direction being fairly common among ringforts of the period. The site carries the name Sheenaun Fort on the OS Fair Plan, a version of an earlier survey record, suggesting it was recognisable and locally known long before any formal archaeological attention came its way. Beyond that name and its position on a slight rise in the undulating ground, the historical record for this particular fort is spare.