It is a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, a type of enclosed farmstead built in early medieval Ireland, typically between the sixth and tenth centuries, where a family would have lived, kept livestock, and carried out the business of daily life behind a raised bank of earth. Thousands survive across the country, yet each one represents a specific act of settlement, a particular household's decision about where to live and how to mark that space.

This example is nearly circular, measuring 38 metres north to south and 39 metres east to west, which gives a reasonable sense of the ground it occupies. The enclosure is formed in two distinct ways depending on which side you approach from. Along the arc running from west-northwest to east-southeast, there is a raised earthen bank standing roughly 0.9 metres high. On the opposite arc, from east-southeast back around to west-northwest, the boundary takes the form of a scarp, essentially a cut into the slope rather than a built-up bank, which stands about 1.5 metres high. To the south and west, an external fosse, a defensive ditch, runs outside the enclosure at a depth of around 0.8 metres. The use of both a constructed bank and a natural scarp in the same monument is a practical response to the slope of the ground, making the most of the topography rather than fighting it.