Its enclosing bank is broken in several places, yet none of those gaps appears to mark the original entrance, which means that after perhaps fifteen centuries, nobody is quite sure how you were supposed to get in.

Lios Bán, or Lisbane, is a univallate rath, meaning a ringfort enclosed by a single bank and ditch. These were the most common form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically the farmsteads of farming families between roughly the fifth and twelfth centuries. This one measures approximately 26.3 metres north to south and 28 metres east to west, making it a fairly substantial example. The external fosse, a defensive ditch encircling the bank, drops 2.1 metres below the surrounding ground level at the north-east, which gives a sense of how seriously the enclosure was constructed. On the inner face of the bank, stone coursing up to a metre high still revets the earthwork, particularly at the north and east, and large slabs protrude from the base of the bank on the outside. The interior slopes noticeably downhill towards the south, and in that lower half two faint circular outlines of stone survive, each around 2.2 metres in diameter internally, most likely the remains of small huts. There is also a local tradition that a souterrain lies somewhere within the rath. A souterrain is an underground stone-lined passage, often used for storage or as a place of refuge, and they frequently accompany ringforts across Ireland. Its exact location here, however, has not been confirmed.

The site sits on the Iveragh Peninsula, the long arm of land that reaches into the Atlantic and carries the Ring of Kerry along its edge. Knocknadobar itself is a mountain with a history of pilgrimage, and the rath occupies its rougher, less frequented southern pastures. The terrain is rocky and the ground uneven, so the earthwork blends into the landscape in a way that rewards slow attention rather than a quick glance from a distance.