Ringforts, known in Irish as raths, are the most common archaeological monument in Ireland, typically consisting of a raised interior enclosed by one or more earthen banks and ditches, and dating broadly to the early medieval period. This one follows a slightly different pattern: no bank survives, or perhaps none was ever built in the usual form.

What encloses the platform instead is a ditch, four metres wide and half a metre deep, cut around its edge. Scattered stone along the rim of the platform hints at something more substantial, possibly the remnants of a stone wall that once served the enclosing function a bank would otherwise have provided. Stone-walled raths are less common than their earthen counterparts, and where the stone has been robbed out or collapsed over centuries, what remains can look puzzlingly bare. The setting adds a particular quality to the site: the ground around it is flat to gently rolling, and from the platform there are open views towards Ballysadare Bay and the unmistakable bulk of Knocknarea to the north-west, the hill traditionally associated with the tomb of the mythological queen Maeve.