The outer bank rises only seventy centimetres above the external ground level, and the internal face is lower still. To a passing eye, this might be a trick of the terrain, a slight swelling in the field, yet the geometry is too deliberate for that: a near-perfect circle, thirty-one metres across both north to south and east to west, with a broad shallow ditch running around the outside and a second, lower bank curving around the southern and western arc.

This is a rath, the earthen variety of ringfort, a type of enclosed farmstead built throughout Ireland during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Thousands were constructed across the country, serving as protected homesteads for farming families rather than as military fortifications in any serious sense. The earthworks here follow a fairly standard arrangement: a causeway entrance on the eastern side, four metres wide, which would have allowed access for people and animals while the surrounding bank and fosse, a term for the outer ditch, offered a degree of enclosure. What makes this particular example worth noting is a feature that departs from the usual pattern. Running northward from the main enclosure for thirty-one metres is a shallow linear extension of the fosse, narrow at two and a half metres wide and only thirty-five centimetres deep. Its purpose is not recorded, but it suggests the site was used or adapted in ways that went beyond the basic circular plan.

The site lies in undulating pasture at Cloonty, and the interior is level and under grass, meaning the ground surface within the ring has remained relatively undisturbed. Visiting requires crossing working farmland, so seeking permission locally before approaching is advisable. The low relief of the banks means the full shape is easier to read from a slight elevation, or by walking the outer ditch and letting the curve reveal itself underfoot. The linear fosse extension to the north is easy to miss if you are not looking for it; following the ground northward from the main enclosure on foot is the clearest way to trace it. Denis Power compiled the site record, which was uploaded in August 2011.