A rath, as this type of monument is known, is an enclosed farmstead of roughly circular plan, typically built between the sixth and tenth centuries, and there are thousands of them across Ireland. What makes this one worth a second look is the layering of its earthworks: not one but two concentric banks, each standing around two metres high, with a fosse, or external ditch, roughly a metre and a quarter deep running between them. Double-banked examples like this are less common than single-banked raths and are generally thought to have belonged to people of some local standing, the additional circuit of bank and ditch signalling status as much as security.

The site occupies a south-facing slope above a small stream in Donickmore, a position that would have offered practical advantages to whoever farmed here: good drainage down toward the water, the warmth of a southern aspect, and a clear view of the surrounding ground. The enclosure measures roughly 37 metres north to south and 35 metres east to west, making it a reasonably substantial example. Two gaps break the circuit of the banks, one to the south and one to the northeast. The northeastern gap in the inner bank is accompanied by a causeway crossing the intervening fosse, which suggests a formal, perhaps the primary, entrance. The outer bank survives only from the southeast around to the west, so the full double circuit may once have been more complete than it appears today. The interior slopes gently downward toward the south, which would have helped with water run-off within the enclosed space. The site sits in tillage, meaning it has been worked as arable land, a land use that over the centuries can gradually reduce earthworks, though enough survives here to read the original form with reasonable confidence.