It was there in 1841-42, faithfully noted by the surveyors, and then, in the later edition, gone. The earthwork itself, however, did not oblige by vanishing. Sections of its bank survive to this day, particularly along the northern arc from north-west through to north-east, and a smaller fragment persists to the south.

A rath, to use the Irish term, is an enclosed farmstead of the early medieval period, typically defined by one or more earthen banks encircling a roughly circular interior. This one at Kilfeighny is univallate, meaning it has a single such enclosure, and its interior measures around 34 metres across from north to south. The surviving northern bank is substantial in places, between 3 and 8 metres wide and rising to as much as 2 metres on its outer face, though from inside the enclosure the ground rises only about a metre. A small stream runs along the northern edge in an east-west direction, and a trackway follows the south-western and western sides. A rectangular field has since been cut through the northern, western, and southern portions of the monument, which goes some way towards explaining the piecemeal survival of the earthworks and perhaps also the gap in the cartographic record. C. Toal's North Kerry Archaeological Survey, published in 1995, recorded these details and remains the primary source for the site.