The earthwork measures 46 metres across in both directions, a symmetry that feels deliberate, almost considered, against the irregular landscape around it.

This is a rath, the most common type of early medieval settlement monument in Ireland. A rath is essentially a farmstead enclosed by one or more earthen banks, typically constructed between the sixth and tenth centuries, and serving as both a domestic boundary and a marker of social status. At Claraghatlea, the enclosing bank still stands to an internal height of around 1.2 metres and an external height of roughly 1.1 metres along its eastern to north-western arc, while elsewhere around the circuit a scarp, a steep earthen face rather than a formed bank, rises to a more pronounced 2.2 metres. Outside the bank, a fosse, the accompanying ditch that would have provided the material for the bank itself, survives to a maximum depth of 1.4 metres on the eastern to west-south-western side. Two cattle gaps break the bank to the south and west-south-west, at 1.5 and 2 metres wide respectively; these are likely later insertions, widened or cut through to allow livestock movement once the enclosure had long ceased to function as a domestic settlement. The grass-covered interior slopes noticeably downward toward the north-east, lending the site an unusual internal topography that sets it apart from the more level-floored examples found on flatter ground elsewhere in Cork.