The ringfort at Drumcondra sits on the north-facing slope of a low ridge, surrounded by undulating pasture, and it survives in a state that rewards careful looking rather than a casual glance.

A rath, as this type of monument is sometimes called, is an enclosed farmstead of the early medieval period, typically consisting of a roughly circular or oval area ringed by one or more earthen banks. Families of middling rank lived and kept livestock within them, and they were once so common across Ireland that tens of thousands are thought to have existed. This example is oval in plan, measuring about 14.5 metres north to south and 18.5 metres east to west on the interior, enclosed by an earthen bank roughly two metres wide. The bank has eroded considerably, standing only around 0.6 metres above the interior ground level and 0.7 metres above the exterior, but its western arc remains the best preserved section. The entrance, two metres wide, faces west, which is a reasonably common orientation for such sites. The field boundary crossing the interior is a later intrusion, a reminder that once a monument like this loses its social meaning, the working land around it has a way of gradually absorbing it.