What makes it worth a second look is not its size, which is modest at roughly thirty metres across, but the small rectangular stone structure that clings to its outer face on the south-south-east side. That addition, less than four metres long and under a metre high, raises a question the earthwork alone would not: what was this place actually used for, and by whom?

The site is a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, a category of monument that was constructed in very large numbers across Ireland during the early medieval period, roughly from the fifth to the twelfth century. Ringforts functioned primarily as enclosed farmsteads, the bank and external fosse, a flat-bottomed or V-shaped ditch, providing a degree of security for a household and its livestock rather than serving any military purpose in the modern sense. At Gortbrack, the fosse survives to a depth of around 0.8 metres on the southern side, and the bank, though worn, retains traces of stone-facing in places, suggesting a degree of construction effort beyond simple earth-throwing. The rectangular stone structure adjoining the outer bank is an intriguing anomaly. It does not fit the typical internal features associated with habitation, and its position outside the enclosure proper sets it apart from the domestic core of the rath.