It is a rath, or ringfort, the kind of enclosed farmstead that once dotted the Irish countryside in the thousands during the early medieval period. A rath typically consisted of a circular area enclosed by one or more earthen banks and ditches, serving as a defended homestead for a family of some local standing. That one now occupies the rough of a golf course is, in its own understated way, a peculiar collision of eras.

The site at Killeline is roughly circular in plan, measuring 26.75 metres north to south and 24.9 metres east to west. It is enclosed by an earthen bank that rises to about 0.6 metres on its interior face and nearly a metre on the exterior, with a fosse, that is, a defensive ditch, running along the north-western to south-western arc. The fosse is relatively shallow at around 0.1 metres deep and 1.4 metres wide, suggesting either significant silting over centuries or that this was always a more modest enclosure. A causeway entrance, measuring just over four metres in width, opens at the eastern side, which is the most common orientation for ringforts and may reflect early medieval beliefs about auspicious directions. At some point, a modern drainage cut was made along the line of the original fosse between the south-western and north-western sections, which complicates the archaeology without entirely obscuring it. The record was compiled by Denis Power and uploaded in August 2011.

For anyone who finds themselves at Killeline Golf Course with a curiosity about what lies just off the playing surface, the ringfort sits on the level rough beside the fairway and is largely grassed over in its interior. The south-eastern quadrant has accumulated some overgrowth, which makes that portion harder to read clearly. The earthen bank is still legible as a continuous feature for most of its circuit, and the eastern causeway entrance is the clearest single element to look for. As with many ringforts on private or semi-private land, access is incidental rather than arranged; the site has no formal path or signage, so awareness of your surroundings on the course is more useful than any map.