That a structure of this age and scale should survive at all in working agricultural ground is, in itself, a minor curiosity. Field clearance stones have been dumped inside the interior over the years, a common fate for these sites, as farmers found the enclosed space a convenient place to shift debris from surrounding fields.

The earthwork is a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, the most numerous monument type in the Irish landscape. These were farmsteads, built and occupied roughly between the sixth and tenth centuries, where a family of some local standing would have lived within a defined, defensible enclosure. This example at Belrose measures approximately 41.5 metres north to south and 38 metres east to west, making it a reasonably substantial example. The enclosing bank is accompanied by an external fosse, a rock-cut or earthen ditch running along the western side, now surviving to a depth of around 0.6 metres. A gap in the southern bank, about two metres wide, marks what was almost certainly the original entrance, with a large boulder set on the eastern side of the opening, perhaps once serving as a gatepost or a simple marker defining the threshold.