It sits on a north-west-facing slope at Gortnacoolagh, positioned not quite at the summit but close enough to command wide, open views across the valley in an arc running from west through north to east. That deliberate placement, catching sight-lines in three directions while keeping a degree of shelter, is characteristic of how these enclosures were sited across early medieval Ireland.

A ringfort, or rath, is a roughly circular enclosure defined by an earthen bank and, typically, a surrounding ditch. They were the farmsteads of early medieval Ireland, occupied roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries, and thousands survive in varying states of preservation. The example at Gortnacoolagh survives as a low, raised platform, irregular in shape, measuring approximately 33.5 metres across on its south-east to north-west axis and 25.5 metres north to south. The enclosure is defined by a scarp, a sloping earthen edge, between half a metre and just over a metre high, and around it runs a wet outer fosse, the ditch that would originally have reinforced the sense of boundary and enclosure. That fosse is still partially waterlogged, between two and four metres wide and up to 1.2 metres deep in places. On the south-east side, there is a possible entrance gap some thirteen metres across, which is wide by the standards of these monuments, though the precise nature of any original gateway is no longer clear from the surviving earthwork alone.

The wet fosse is worth noting if you intend to walk the perimeter closely, particularly after rainfall when the ground around it is likely to be soft.