A rath is a ringfort, the most common archaeological monument type in Ireland, typically a roughly circular enclosure defined by a bank and ditch, used as a farmstead or defended homestead during the early medieval period, roughly 500 to 1000 AD. What distinguishes this one from a casual glance is the way its builders solved a practical problem: positioned on a north-facing slope below the crest of an east-west ridge, the interior ground level has been deliberately raised on the northern side to create a roughly level living surface despite the hillside falling away beneath it. That kind of earthmoving, carried out without machinery, says something about how seriously these enclosures were engineered.

The enclosure itself measures approximately 49 metres north to south and 45 metres east to west, making it a reasonably substantial example. Its defences are not uniform all the way around, which is common and reflects both topography and the direction from which threat or weather was most expected. On the south-east to north-west arc there is an external fosse, a defensive ditch, cut to a depth of around 1.8 metres. Elsewhere the ditch is shallower. The bank varies too: on the north-west to east side it takes the form of a scarp, essentially a steep cut face rather than a built-up bank, reaching about 2.1 metres in height, with a slight internal lip. The eastern side has a break in the bank, most likely the original entrance. Together these features sketch the outline of a working enclosure, carefully adapted to the land it sits on rather than imposed upon it.