That kind of anomaly is what makes earthwork archaeology interesting: the outer structure follows a well-understood pattern, but the interior feature refuses to fit neatly into any catalogue.

A ringfort, or rath, is an enclosed farmstead of the early medieval period, typically dating to somewhere between the fifth and twelfth centuries. The enclosing bank was less a defensive wall than a boundary marker and a deterrent to cattle thieves, defining the household space of a farming family. The Lackanatlieve example sits on a low hillock in rough pasture and is reasonably well preserved. The enclosed area measures roughly 23.8 metres north to south and 22.3 metres east to west, ringed by an earthen bank between 3.9 and 6.5 metres wide, which stands about 0.9 metres above the interior ground level and 1.4 metres above the exterior. A gap of approximately 1.2 metres on the south-eastern side may represent the original entrance, a position that is fairly common in ringforts and is thought by some researchers to relate to prevailing winds and the orientation of the settlement. Within this enclosure, near the centre, a roughly circular raised area about seven metres in diameter and 0.4 metres high has been noted. Whether it is the remains of a structural platform, a souterrain cap, or something else entirely is not recorded.