At Fynagh in County Galway, a roughly D-shaped rath sits at the base of a gentle north-facing slope, its form still legible after well over a thousand years, though not entirely in the state its original builders would recognise. Ringforts, or raths, were the most common form of enclosed settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically consisting of a circular or near-circular area defined by one or more earthen banks and a fosse, the ditch dug to supply the material for the banks. This one measures approximately 50 metres along its northwest-to-southeast axis and just over 45 metres across, defined by two banks with an intervening fosse between them.

What distinguishes the Fynagh rath is the evidence of later interference, likely from the nineteenth century. Traces of external stone-facing on the inner bank, and a fosse curving through the southern half of the interior, are thought to be connected to landscaping activity carried out well after the fort's working life had ended. This was not unusual in the post-medieval period, when landowners sometimes reshaped or incorporated ancient earthworks into ornamental grounds. Several breaches in the inner bank appear to be modern rather than the result of gradual decay, and the outer bank survives only along the northern arc, from north-northwest to northeast. What remains is fair condition overall, enough to read the original structure clearly, but with the fingerprints of a later era worked into it.