It is a rath, the most common type of monument in the Irish countryside, yet familiarity has done little to diminish the particular atmosphere of these places. A rath, sometimes called a ringfort, is an enclosed farmstead of the early medieval period, typically dating from roughly the fifth to the twelfth century, built not as a military fortification in any serious sense but as a defined domestic space, separating household and livestock from the wider world.

This particular example sits on a hillock with open views to the north-west, north, and east, which is exactly the kind of modest but deliberate positioning that characterises so many of these sites. The enclosure is oval in shape, running approximately thirty-two metres along its north-west to south-east axis, and is defined by a low earthen bank with a shallow external ditch, known as a fosse, that survives best along its western and northern arc. On the eastern side, there is a causewayed entrance gap just over two and a half metres wide, where the fosse was left uncut to allow passage in and out. The interior rises unevenly toward its centre, suggesting that whatever structures once stood here have left only slight traces in the ground.