A rath is an early medieval ringfort, a type of enclosed farmstead that was once extraordinarily common across Ireland, built and occupied roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Thousands survive in varying states of preservation; this one in Killeen townland, West Cork, is among the more complete examples in the region.

The enclosure measures 38 metres across its north-south axis, surrounded by an earthen bank that still stands 2.3 metres high, with an external fosse, or ditch, cut to a depth of 1.2 metres. On the south side, a gap 3.5 metres wide breaks through the bank, its edges stone-faced and crossed by a causeway, marking the original entrance. The interior itself has been deliberately levelled on the southern side to compensate for the natural gradient of the slope, a detail that speaks to the care and effort invested in the construction. In the south-east quadrant, a low mound of stone rubble measuring roughly ten metres east to west and just over seven and a half metres north to south may be the collapsed remains of an internal structure, perhaps a house or outbuilding, the stones slowly settling into the earth over the centuries since the site was last occupied.