It is a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, which was the most common form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically consisting of a circular or oval enclosure defined by earthen banks and used as a farmstead by a single family or small community. This one measures roughly 42 metres north to south and 35 metres east to west, making it a fairly modest example, its enclosing bank rising only around 0.4 metres above the surrounding ground level.

What gives the site a small structural curiosity is that its bank, which runs from the north-west to the south-east, is revetted with stone along the north-eastern arc. Revetting, the practice of facing an earthen bank with stone to stabilise and retain it, is not unusual in ringforts, but here it survives only in part, suggesting either selective construction or uneven survival over the intervening centuries. The site was recorded in a 1994 archaeological survey of the Ballinrobe district, an area bounded by Lough Mask and Lough Carra, compiled by D. Lavelle for the Lough Mask and Lough Carra Tourist Development Association. Beyond that survey record, the rath sits without obvious documentation of the people who once enclosed their lives within it.