It is the kind of feature that a passing walker might take for a natural rise in the ground, yet its proportions, roughly 48 metres north to south and 33 metres east to west, and the deliberate shaping of its edges, mark it out as something considerably older and more intentional.

This is a rath, the Irish term for an earthen ringfort, a form of enclosed settlement that was built and occupied across Ireland primarily during the early medieval period, broadly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Thousands survive in various states of preservation, and they represent the most common archaeological monument type in the country. Most were farmsteads, home to a single family and their livestock, their enclosing banks offering a degree of security and marking out social status as much as providing any serious military defence. At Dromore, the enclosing earthen bank is accompanied by an external fosse, a shallow ditch, on the southern side, and a ramp entrance just under two metres wide opens to the north-east. The elevated position, commanding that broad east-to-west view, would have made good practical sense for those who once lived here, whether for watching over grazing animals or simply keeping an eye on approaching visitors. A field fence now bisects the site from south to west, the ordinary infrastructure of modern farming cutting across something that has otherwise endured for well over a thousand years.