This is a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, the type of enclosed farmstead that was built across Ireland in the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Thousands survive in various states of preservation, but this one at Kilpatrick carries the particular interest of a site that has been partially erased, and the erasure itself tells a story.

The enclosure measures approximately sixty metres on its longer axis and thirty-eight metres on the shorter, making it a substantial example of its type. It is defined by a poorly preserved earthen bank and a very slight external fosse, the shallow ditch that would originally have reinforced the bank as both a boundary marker and a practical barrier. Along the northern through to the eastern and south-eastern perimeter, the bank has been levelled almost entirely, most likely through agricultural activity over the centuries. What makes the interior particularly legible, despite the degradation, is the presence of cultivation ridges running east to west across the enclosed area. These lazy-bed style ridges are a sign that at some point after the ringfort ceased to function as a settlement enclosure, someone turned the ground inside it over to tillage, a commonplace fate for sites whose original purpose had long been forgotten. The terrace position on the hillside would have offered practical advantages for early medieval farmers, and the views to the north-west, south-west, and south remain wide and clear. A second earthwork lies roughly 180 metres to the south-south-west, suggesting this part of the Kilpatrick landscape once supported more than one enclosed site within a relatively short distance.