That impenetrability is, in a quiet way, part of what has preserved it. The blackthorn has done what neglect and encroachment could not undo elsewhere.

A rath is an early medieval enclosure, typically circular, formed by a raised earthen platform surrounded by a fosse, or ditch, and used as a farmstead or defended residence. This one sits on a north-east-facing slope in pasture, and its circular form, roughly 25 metres in diameter, has been traceable on Ordnance Survey maps since at least 1842, when the first six-inch survey recorded it as a hachured circular enclosure. The same outline appears again on the 1906 and 1937 editions, suggesting the earthwork survived the intervening century with its basic shape intact. Up close, however, the picture is less tidy. The platform rises only about 0.2 metres above the surrounding ground, and the fosse that encloses it reaches a depth of around 0.4 metres, both modest dimensions. Some damage has been done: part of the platform has been removed to the north-east, the fosse has been infilled to the south-east, and a field fence runs immediately outside the fosse to the south, cutting close to its edge.