It is, in fact, a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, a type of enclosed farmstead built in their thousands across Ireland during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Most were home to a single farming family, the enclosing bank and ditch serving as much for status as for security.

This particular example in Caherelly East measures approximately 21 metres north to south and 20 metres east to west, making it a relatively compact site. The defining feature is a scarped edge, essentially a cut and shaped bank of earth, which runs to about 5.3 metres in width and survives to a height of 0.85 metres. Beyond it lies an external fosse, the surrounding ditch, with a total width of around 4.9 metres, though it is now quite shallow, recorded at just 0.15 metres deep. What makes the site a little more interesting than a lone enclosure is that a second enclosure, catalogued separately as LI023-319, adjoins it at the south-west. Conjoined ringforts are not unheard of in Ireland, but they are far from the norm, and the relationship between the two enclosures raises quiet questions about how the site was organised and used. The record was compiled by Denis Power and uploaded to the national monuments database in November 2013.

The site sits in level pasture, which means the earthworks are low and can be easy to miss without knowing what to look for. The slight ridge of the scarped bank and the shallow depression of the fosse are best read in low-angle light, so early morning or late afternoon visits in spring or autumn, when the sun sits closer to the horizon, tend to reveal the ground most clearly. The junction with the adjoining enclosure at the south-west corner is worth examining if access permits, as the boundary between two conjoined features often holds the clearest surviving earthwork detail. As with most field monuments in active farmland, it is worth checking access arrangements locally before approaching.