The outer bank, still standing to a height of 1.7 metres all the way around, gives the site a quiet but unmistakable presence in the surrounding pasture. The inner bank survives only along the north-northwest to west arc, where it rises about 0.7 metres above the interior. Between the two banks runs a fosse, the sunken ditch that was integral to the original design, its width varying between roughly 9.5 and 15 metres depending on where you measure.

This is a rath, the most common type of ringfort found across Ireland. Raths are enclosed farmsteads of the early medieval period, typically dating from around the sixth to the twelfth century, built to protect a family and their livestock rather than to serve as military fortifications in any formal sense. They were constructed from the earth dug out to form the fosse, piled into banks and sometimes reinforced with timber or stone. The Lyradane example is roughly circular, measuring about 30 metres east to west and 27.5 metres north to south, which is a fairly typical scale for a single-family enclosure. Two gaps interrupt the earthworks: one through the outer bank to the north, and a second cutting through both banks on the southeast to south-southeast arc, the latter likely marking the original entrance or a later modification to it.