Whatever its original purpose, it gives the enclosure an air of deliberate arrangement that goes beyond the purely functional, and it is that quality, quiet and a little difficult to account for, which sets this particular site apart from the hundreds of similar earthworks scattered across the Irish countryside.

The fort itself is a rath, the most common type of early medieval enclosure in Ireland, typically used as a farmstead and defended residence between roughly the fifth and twelfth centuries. This example measures approximately 32 metres north to south and 34 metres east to west, making it a fairly typical size. It sits on a break in a north-north-west-facing slope, now used as pasture, and is defined by an earthen bank standing about 1.7 metres high. On its western side, that bank is faced with stone on the outer surface, a detail that suggests either additional effort in its original construction or a later phase of repair and reinforcement. The external fosse, the defensive ditch that would ordinarily ring the outside of the bank, takes an unusual form here: rather than a simple cut in the ground, it is a drainage channel running from north-north-east to south-west, through which a stream actually flows. Water was a practical asset in any defended enclosure, and its incorporation into the fosse line reflects a sensible use of the natural landscape rather than a purely symbolic gesture of boundary-marking.

The interior planting of oak trees, combined with that central slab, gives the enclosure a particular atmosphere. Whether the oaks are old enough to have any direct historical significance is unclear, but ringforts across Ireland have long attracted local folklore, and many remain unploughed and undisturbed precisely because of a persistent belief, still held in some rural communities, that interfering with a fairy fort brings misfortune. This one, grazed but evidently respected, appears to have fared accordingly.