That inversion, a depression rather than a raised platform, gives the place an almost moat-like quality, though no moat was ever intended. It is a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, a type of enclosed farmstead built predominantly during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Thousands of them survive across Ireland, but each one carries its own particular character depending on how the land has settled around it over the intervening centuries.

The monument at Farnane Franklin takes the form of a circular earthen enclosure measuring approximately 38 metres east to west. The bank that defines it stands around 1.1 metres high on the interior face and 0.9 metres on the exterior, with a width of roughly 3.5 metres, making it a solid if not especially imposing earthwork. The site sits in poorly drained, undulating pasture, and the notes compiled by Denis Power record that it commands good views in all directions, which would have been a practical consideration for whoever chose the location. A later field boundary cuts across the enclosure from east to west, close to its northern end, a common fate for ancient monuments that remained in agricultural use long after their original purpose was forgotten. Some scrub has taken hold along the eastern portion of the site.

The site sits within working farmland, so access would depend on landowner permission, as is standard for ringforts in private pasture across Ireland. The waterlogged interior means that even in drier months the ground underfoot is likely to be soft and uneven. The earthen bank itself is the main thing to observe; walking its circuit gives a clear sense of the original scale of the enclosure, and from the higher ground of the bank the views that made this spot worth choosing over a thousand years ago are still legible in the landscape around it.