That one detail tells you a lot about how these structures have fared over the centuries; not dramatically demolished, but quietly absorbed into the working landscape, their outlines bent to accommodate drainage ditches, fences, and grazing patterns that have nothing to do with their original purpose.

The site is a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, the most common type of early medieval monument in Ireland. Built roughly between 500 and 1000 AD, raths were typically enclosed farmsteads, their earthen banks and ditches marking the boundary of a family's domestic and agricultural space rather than any military fortification. This one sits on a south-south-east-facing slope in marshy pasture, and its oval footprint measures approximately 24.8 metres north to south and 18.5 metres east to west. The enclosing bank still stands to an internal height of around 1.25 metres and an external height of 1.8 metres, with its best-preserved section at the north-east. Outside the bank runs a fosse, a defensive ditch, which is waterlogged and measures roughly 0.6 metres deep and 1.8 metres wide. A slight dip in the bank on the south-east side may indicate a former entrance. Running south from the enclosing bank for about 20 metres is a low earthen bank, only 0.3 metres high, that gradually fades out into the surrounding ground. Its purpose is unclear, but such annexes are occasionally found at ringfort sites.

The field boundary that bisects the interior runs from roughly east-north-east to west-north-west, and it has created two quite different conditions within the enclosure. North of it, the ground is level and under pasture; south of it, dense overgrowth has taken hold. For anyone approaching the site, this means that the southern half requires some effort to read clearly on the ground. The marshy character of the surrounding pasture is worth keeping in mind if you are visiting after wet weather, since the waterlogged fosse suggests the ground here holds moisture readily. The site was recorded and compiled by Denis Power, with notes uploaded in August 2011.