Measuring around 30 metres in diameter, it survives as a degraded earthen bank, the kind of feature that might register as a natural undulation to anyone not looking carefully. What makes it quietly interesting is the presence of a souterrain in its north-western interior quadrant. A souterrain is an underground stone-lined passage or chamber, typically associated with early medieval settlement in Ireland, and thought to have served for storage, refuge, or both. The bank itself may once have been revetted with stone, meaning faced or reinforced with a stone lining, though little evidence of that survives.

Raths of this kind date broadly to the early medieval period, roughly the sixth to twelfth centuries, when they served as enclosed farmsteads for a single family or small community. The earthen bank and any accompanying ditch would have defined a boundary as much as a fortification. The Caherkelly example is noted by McCaffrey in 1952, catalogued in a survey entry numbered 49a, and represents the kind of modest, workaday settlement that was once common across the Irish countryside. The survival of the souterrain, even in unexcavated form, suggests the site may have supported a more substantial household than the present-day remains imply.