It is a rath, the earthen form of a ringfort, the type of enclosed farmstead that was built in enormous numbers across Ireland during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Thousands survive in varying states of preservation, and this one is neither the grandest nor the most complete. What makes it worth a closer look is precisely the way it shows the slow attrition that has reshaped so many of these sites over the centuries.

The earthwork retains its low enclosing bank and, outside that, a wide and deep fosse, the defensive ditch that originally reinforced the boundary. But the fosse has been substantially altered, most likely to serve drainage needs as the surrounding land was brought into agricultural use. Along a stretch running from the east-south-east around to the south-west, the perimeter has been levelled almost entirely. A further low bank sitting outside the fosse on the southern and western and northern sides is considered almost certainly a later, modern addition rather than any original feature. An Office of Public Works record from 1968 noted that the original entrance to the enclosure may have been positioned on the south-east side, a placement that would align with patterns seen at many comparable sites elsewhere in Ireland, where entrances often faced east or south-east.