On an east-facing slope above the narrow valley of the Fermoyle River in north Cork, the arc of a low rise running roughly north-north-east to south-south-west is legible mainly because the vegetation growing over it behaves differently from the rough grazing land around it. That differential growth pattern, the kind of quiet botanical clue that archaeologists learn to read, traces the surviving outline of what was once a rath, the Irish term for a roughly circular enclosure defined by a bank and ditch, typically built during the early medieval period as a farmstead and domestic enclosure.

The site's modern rediscovery came about almost by accident. When the surrounding area was reclaimed from bogland during the 1960s, the structure beneath became apparent in a striking way: the bank proved to be built of stone, while the interior was notably clear of stone compared to the rest of the field. Bog preservation had effectively kept the distinction intact, so that the contrast between the cleared interior and the stony bank read almost like a plan of the original construction. A later visit to the site, carried out when the field had been ploughed, confirmed a concentration of stones along the surface of the low rise, with further stone scatter noted just outside the levelled bank to the east and south-south-west, in patches of roughly two metres by two metres. The interior itself slopes downward to the east, towards the valley below.