Neither alteration was planned with any archaeological sensitivity, yet both, in their own way, make the site quietly legible. You can see, without much effort, exactly where the modern world has pressed itself against something considerably older.

The rath, as this type of monument is known, consists of a roughly circular area about 35 metres in diameter, enclosed by an earthen bank that still stands to a height of 2.6 metres along its better-preserved southern and western arc. A rath is essentially a ringfort, a type of enclosed farmstead built during the early medieval period, typically between the sixth and tenth centuries, when such enclosures served as the basic unit of rural settlement across Ireland. This example sits on a north-facing slope just below the crest of a northeast-to-southwest ridge, with the interior ground falling away toward the north-northeast. Two breaks in the bank survive, one to the south-southwest at six metres wide, the other to the north at 3.5 metres, likely representing original entrance points. What gives this particular site an added dimension is the souterrain recorded at its centre. A souterrain is an underground stone-lined passage, usually associated with ringforts, and thought to have served for storage, refuge, or both. Their presence often indicates a settlement of some substance, or at least one where the inhabitants felt the need to build carefully beneath the ground as well as above it.