What looks like a slight rise in the ground is in fact the remnant of a rath, a type of ringfort built in the early medieval period, typically between the fifth and twelfth centuries, as an enclosed farmstead for a single family or small community. Thousands once dotted the Irish countryside; many have been ploughed flat or built over, so those that survive, however worn, carry a quiet significance.

This particular enclosure measures roughly 29 metres north to south and 26 metres east to west, defined by an earthen scarp standing between 0.6 and 0.8 metres high. A fosse, or defensive ditch, once ran around the exterior; traces of it remain, roughly four metres wide and about a quarter of a metre deep, though centuries of weather and agriculture have reduced it considerably. The interior slopes downward to the east, following the natural gradient of the hillside, and a possible entrance, some six to eight metres wide, faces roughly east-south-east, a common orientation that would have caught the morning light. Dense vegetation has taken hold across the interior, the scarp, and what survives of the fosse, further softening the outlines that would once have been sharper and more purposeful. A second earthwork lies approximately 400 metres to the west-southwest, suggesting this was not an isolated structure but part of a broader pattern of early settlement across this part of Tipperary.