The earthwork itself has been levelled, and what survives above the soil is largely a ghost, a cropmark readable on aerial imagery but easily walked past without a second glance. That gap between what the land conceals and what a satellite can reveal says something about how thoroughly these early medieval enclosures have been absorbed back into the Irish countryside.

A ringfort, sometimes called a rath, was a roughly circular enclosure typically used as a farmstead during the early medieval period, roughly the fifth to twelfth centuries. They were defined by one or more earthen banks and external ditches, known as fosses, and were built in enormous numbers across Ireland, with tens of thousands of examples recorded. The Kilpeacon example was described by O'Kelly in 1942 to 1943 as consisting of a circular platform edged with a bank of stone, earth, and gravel, with a fosse running outside it and a further outer bank enclosing the whole. That outer bank was mainly of stone and survived at the time of recording for roughly two thirds of the circumference. The overall diameter was measured at 165 feet, or approximately 50 metres. Even then, the entrance was no longer recognisable, and the interior was densely overgrown. The double enclosure, with both an inner and an outer bank, suggests a degree of elaboration that may indicate higher status than a simple single-banked rath.

Today, the site is best appreciated through the Digital Globe aerial coverage, where the cropmark of the levelled fort remains visible as a circular parch or growth variation in the field. On the ground, there may be little obvious to see, though anyone crossing the area in the right light or at the right season might notice a subtle difference in the lie of the land. If you are visiting Kilpeacon, it is worth consulting the aerial record beforehand so you know what you are looking at, or looking for, once you arrive.