The ringfort sits in pasture on a south-east-facing slope, and the earthwork itself has been shaped as much by the practicalities of that hillside as by any standard formula of construction.

Ringforts, sometimes called raths, are roughly circular enclosures defined by one or more earthen banks and ditches, and were the typical farmstead of early medieval Ireland, used broadly from around the fifth to the twelfth century. This one measures approximately 34 metres east to west and 32 metres north to south, enclosed by an earthen bank rising to about 1.2 metres on the western to north-eastern arc, with a shallow external fosse, a ditch running outside the bank, reaching a maximum depth of 0.6 metres. Where the bank has been levelled on the north-eastern to eastern and south-western to western sections, it survives only as a low rise of up to 0.6 metres. On the eastern to south-western side, a scarp of up to 2 metres compensates for the natural fall of the slope, keeping the interior roughly level. That interior has also been deliberately raised on its south-eastern side for the same reason, a practical piece of ground engineering that gives some sense of how carefully sited these enclosures were. Of particular interest is the possible presence of a souterrain beneath the site; souterrains are dry-stone or rock-cut underground passages associated with ringforts, and may have served for storage or as places of refuge. A second ringfort lies approximately 40 metres to the north-north-east, and paired or clustered ringforts of this kind are not unusual in Cork, sometimes reflecting family groupings or successive phases of settlement activity.