What remains of this rath, a type of enclosed farmstead typically built during the early medieval period in Ireland, is roughly twenty-nine metres across at its widest, and its boundary survives in two distinct forms: along the western and north-western edge, large stones have been laid horizontally, still standing around forty-five centimetres high; elsewhere, the enclosing bank has worn down to little more than a scarp, with earthen material slumping outward onto the surrounding ground. The interior is uneven underfoot, a quality that often hints at the buried remains of structures or disturbed ground beneath.

The site is old enough to have been mapped. The Ordnance Survey six-inch map of 1846 already records it as a circular enclosure of approximately twenty-five metres in diameter, meaning it was a visible and recognised feature of the landscape well before archaeological surveying began in earnest. Like thousands of similar enclosures across Ireland, it would originally have served as a defended farmstead, the raised bank and any associated fence or palisade marking the boundary of a household's living space. What makes this particular example a little more layered is the presence of a souterrain in its western sector. A souterrain is an underground passage or chamber, typically stone-lined, built during the early medieval period and associated with storage, refuge, or both. Their construction required considerable effort, and their presence within a rath generally suggests a site of some permanence and means.

The rath sits on an elevation within Derreen Wood, which lends it a degree of natural concealment. The combination of the horizontal stonework, the eroded scarp, and the hidden chamber beneath makes it a quietly complex survival, modest in scale but carrying the accumulated weight of a landscape that has been managed, inhabited, and gradually reclaimed by woodland over a very long time.