This is a rath, the most common type of early medieval enclosure in Ireland, typically built between roughly the fifth and twelfth centuries as a defended farmstead for a family of some local standing. The bank would have supported a timber palisade, with livestock kept inside at night and the whole structure signalling both security and social status to anyone passing through the landscape.

This particular example measures approximately 32 metres in diameter, a fairly typical size, and its defining bank survives best on the northern side. What catches the attention, though, is a gap on the north-eastern arc, around 2.3 metres wide, which may be the original entrance. Most raths had a single formal entrance, often oriented to face away from prevailing weather or towards particular pathways, and where one survives intact it can tell you something about how the enclosure was actually used and approached by its inhabitants. The possibility that this gap is original rather than a later break makes it one of the more legible features on the site.