The circular raised area measures roughly 39 metres north to south and 41 metres east to west, making it a reasonably substantial example of its type, and the ground still holds the shape of something deliberately, carefully made. A steep scarp runs around the interior, topped by a low earthen bank. A second, taller bank, reaching 2.15 metres, arcs from the south-south-east to the north-west. Between the two banks lies a waterlogged fosse, a defensive ditch that once served as a wet obstacle, still 2.15 metres deep. A shallower outer fosse survives to the south. The entrance, 6.2 metres wide and facing south-east, is overgrown but present.

Ringforts, sometimes called raths when they are earthen rather than stone-built, are the most common type of archaeological monument in Ireland. They were typically the enclosed farmsteads of prosperous families during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries, though many continued in use or were built upon later. The earthen banks and ditches were not primarily military fortifications in any grand sense; they marked out a family's territory, kept livestock in and predators out, and carried social meaning as visible signs of status. The example at Dromataniheen follows a recognisable pattern, a bivallate form with two banks separated by a fosse, which generally indicates a site of some local importance. The waterlogging of the inner fosse is not unusual in Cork's climate, and in some cases such wet conditions have helped preserve organic material beneath the ground that drier sites would have lost entirely.