A rath, as these earthwork enclosures are known, typically consists of a circular or sub-circular area defined by one or more earthen banks and ditches, and was most commonly used as a defended farmstead during the early medieval period. This one, however, offers an unusual double-bank arrangement and an adjoining rectangular enclosure that together suggest a site with more going on beneath the surface than the quietly rolling Westmeath countryside might suggest.

The main enclosure is sub-circular in plan, roughly 24 metres across from east to west, and is defined by two earthen banks separated by a wide intervening space of up to 12 metres. Beyond the outer bank runs a fosse, a defensive ditch, though this is now only clearly visible on the northern side. Within that space between the two banks, faint traces of cultivation ridges survive, hinting at agricultural activity at some point after, or possibly during, the monument's active use. The interior of the enclosure rises gently toward its centre, where the outline of a rectangular house site can still be made out. Directly adjoining the north-eastern side of the main enclosure sits a separate rectangular area, approximately 22 metres along its north-east to south-west axis and 14 metres across, defined by its own fosse and external bank, though these survive only at the north-west and north-east corners. A church and graveyard lie just 175 metres to the north-east, and bogland begins roughly 570 metres to the west, placing the monument on what would have been a carefully chosen strip of dry, workable ground between wetter, less hospitable terrain on either side.