What survives is modest by any measure: a slightly raised circular area roughly thirty metres across, its enclosing bank of earth and stone worn down almost entirely to a low scarp. Only at the north-east does the bank retain any real presence, and a shallow outer fosse, a defensive ditch running around the outside of the enclosure, remains just legible at between half a metre and just under a metre in depth. The interior tilts gently with the natural slope of the ground from north-east to south-west, with no attempt ever made to level it out, which is itself a small curiosity. Whoever built here either worked quickly or lived simply.

Ringforts, known in Irish as raths when earthen and cashels when built of stone, were the most common form of enclosed farmstead in early medieval Ireland, typically dating from roughly the fifth to the twelfth century. They were built by farming families for the protection of livestock and household, and thousands of them survive across the country in varying states of preservation. This one at Gortanassy sits on a south-west facing slope with open views to the south, west, and north, higher ground rising to the east. Its current condition reflects centuries of agricultural use: the bank and outer fosse have been absorbed into the corner of a field, doing quiet duty as a field boundary from the north around through the east to the south-east. There is no visible entrance feature remaining. Within roughly four hundred metres, at least two other ringforts and a possible third have been recorded in the surrounding landscape, suggesting this upland area once supported a scattered but meaningful early medieval presence.