What remains is a two-banked enclosure, measuring about 33.5 metres on its north-east to south-west axis and 27 metres across, with an intervening fosse, or ditch, running between the two banks. The inner bank still stands to an external height of around 0.75 metres, and the outer to about 0.6 metres, modest figures that understate how much material has shifted or eroded over the centuries.

This is a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, the most common monument type in the Irish countryside. Ringforts were enclosed farmsteads, built predominantly during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries, and used to protect a household and its livestock. The Gortlahard example shows several features typical of the form. Along the north-east arc of the inner bank, traces of stone inclusions are visible on the internal face, suggesting that the earthen construction was reinforced with stone in at least one section. A possible entrance, roughly two metres wide, survives at the south-east, and several smaller breaks in the perimeter are consistent with later cattle-breaks, gaps worn or cut into the banks to allow animals through. Three boulders are embedded in the south-west quadrant of the interior, which slopes downward in that direction and sits raised about 1.2 metres above the external ground level, a detail that hints at deliberate landscaping or accumulated occupation material. A field boundary running north-east to south-west abuts the outer arc of the scarp, showing how later agricultural arrangements have grown up around and against the older structure.