This is a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, and the particular detail that sets this one apart is the entrance gap on the western side, a narrow opening measuring just over one and a half metres wide, that has survived largely intact after well over a thousand years. A second ringfort sits only 130 metres to the south, which makes this corner of the Mayne townland an unusually concentrated piece of early medieval landscape.

Ringforts are enclosed farmsteads built predominantly between the sixth and tenth centuries, typically consisting of one or more earthen banks surrounding a circular interior where a farming household would have lived and kept livestock. This example is sub-circular in plan, measuring roughly 31 metres across on its northeast-to-southwest axis and about 25 metres on the other. Two banks survive, separated by a slight fosse, the shallow ditch between them that would have added to the defensive or enclosing effect. The inner bank remains substantial and well preserved. The outer bank has fared less well; it has been reduced to a scarp in places, and along its southwestern to northwestern arc a field fence now runs along its line, marking the modern boundary with the neighbouring Ballinealeo townland. The views from the site range broadly from southwest to north, a placement that suggests the original occupants were not simply tucked away from the world but very much surveying it.