The one at Mabestown in County Westmeath is more reticent. It sits on a slight natural rise, overlooked by a hillock to the northwest, and its outlines have softened considerably over the centuries. What survives is a raised, roughly sub-circular area, around 30 metres north to south and 25 metres east to west, enclosed not by the single bank and ditch arrangement typical of many such sites but by two earthen banks with a space between them and, unusually, no fosse. A fosse is simply a ditch, and its absence here is worth noting; the double-bank form without an accompanying ditch is a less common configuration, and its original purpose, whether defensive, symbolic, or something more practical, is not easily answered.

Ringforts, known in Irish as raths when they are earthen rather than stone-built, were the predominant settlement type of early medieval Ireland, broadly from the fifth to the twelfth century. They served as enclosed farmsteads for families of varying social rank, and many thousands survive across the country in varying states of preservation. At Mabestown, the inner bank is poorly preserved and carries an entrance gap about 2.8 metres wide on the northeast side, which is a fairly typical orientation for such openings. The outer bank is only visible along the southwest to northwest arc, having presumably been reduced or destroyed elsewhere. The interior rises slightly toward the centre, a feature that may reflect the original construction or the accumulation of material over time. In the western quadrant, a trench has been cut into the inner bank at some point, and a sub-triangular platform of earth beside it appears to be the spoil thrown up from that digging, suggesting some kind of later interference or investigation. A further earthwork lies about 250 metres to the southeast, hinting that this landscape was once more densely occupied than it appears today.