That detail alone sets it apart. A ringfort, or rath, is an enclosed circular or oval settlement, typically dating from the early medieval period, defined by one or more earthen banks and ditches and used as a farmstead or place of habitation. Most were built with a clear gap in the bank to allow people and animals to pass through. Here, no such gap survives above ground, leaving the enclosure looking, from the outside, almost sealed.

The site sits towards the bottom of a north-west facing slope of Tara Hill, and it first appeared cartographically on the 1940 edition of the Ordnance Survey six-inch map, which suggests it had either been overlooked or recorded late relative to many comparable monuments. The enclosure itself is subcircular in plan, measuring roughly 31 metres on its longer axis, and is defined by an earthen bank some six metres wide and rising to a maximum external height of 1.8 metres, with bushes growing along it. Beyond that bank lies an external fosse, which is a defensive ditch, varying in width from around 4.5 metres at the south-east to 7 metres at the north-west. A further outer bank runs along the western and northern arc of the monument, bringing the overall diameter out to approximately 43 metres. The picture that emerges is of a well-layered earthwork, its concentric elements giving it more complexity than a simple single-banked enclosure. At the north-east, the fosse and outer bank have been absorbed into a stream running south-east to north-west, while a field bank cutting across the south-west has clipped the monument's extent in that direction. These two intrusions, one natural and one agricultural, have quietly reshaped the fort's edges over time, which may also help explain why no entrance is now legible in the earthwork.