This is a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, the most common monument type in the Irish countryside. Ringforts were enclosed farmsteads, typically built between the sixth and tenth centuries, where a family and their livestock would have lived within a defended perimeter. Most were constructed of earthen banks; some, like this one, incorporated stone facing along part of the circuit, lending the structure a more permanent, deliberate character.

The Lisbealad example measures roughly 23 metres north to south and 24 metres east to west, giving it a near-perfect circular plan. The enclosing bank is accompanied on its north-eastern to north-western arc by an external fosse, a defensive ditch, cut to a depth of about 1.5 metres. The north-western to north-eastern section of the bank retains its stone facing, suggesting either that this side demanded extra reinforcement, perhaps because the slope or approach made it more vulnerable, or simply that stone was more readily available there. Two gaps interrupt the bank, one to the east at roughly 3.4 metres wide and one to the north-north-west at 3.1 metres, either of which could represent the original entrance, though the eastern break is the wider of the two. The interior tilts gently downward toward the north-east, meaning that whoever once farmed here would have looked out across the ridge in that direction from a slightly elevated position within their own enclosure.