The ground simply drops away slightly at the edges, a scarp of no more than a metre in height tracing an oval shape through the turf, and that modest change in level is almost all that remains of what was once a rath, the most common type of early medieval settlement in Ireland. Raths, sometimes called ringforts, were typically circular or oval enclosures defined by one or more earthen banks and ditches, enclosing a farmstead or the home of a prosperous family, most likely dating from somewhere between the sixth and tenth centuries.

This particular example at Cloonkeen measures roughly 37.7 metres north to south and 25.5 metres east to west, giving it a noticeably oval rather than circular plan. The scarp that defines it stands at only around a metre high, which places it firmly in the category of poorly preserved. To the west of that scarp, there is a slight terrace about six metres wide, which may point to the original presence of an intervening fosse, a defensive ditch, and an outer bank beyond it, though neither feature survives with any clarity. What further complicates the picture is a quarry cut into the south-western quadrant of the interior, evidence that the site has been actively disturbed at some point, with stone or material extracted from within the very area the enclosure once protected. That kind of later intrusion is not uncommon with earthwork monuments that lost their social or cultural significance and were simply treated as convenient resources by subsequent generations.