Walk across the south-facing slope, look around, and the ground offers nothing: no earthwork, no raised bank, no hollow in the turf. The site exists, for practical purposes, only from the air, where an aerial photograph reveals the cropmark of a circular fosse, a defensive ditch that would originally have enclosed a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, typically a farmstead of the early medieval period enclosed by one or more earthen banks and ditches. At Meanus the enclosure is approximately 50 metres in diameter, and a second concentric fosse is faintly traceable outside it along the south-east and south-west arcs, suggesting a more substantial double-ditched arrangement than a simple single-ring enclosure.

The site came under closer scrutiny before a dwelling-house was built to the south-east. A series of investigative trenches was opened at that time, as recorded by Tierney in 2000. One of those trenches intercepted what appeared to be the outer fosse at the south-east arc, revealing a substantial feature some 3.8 metres wide at the top. The excavators did not reach the bottom of it, so its full depth remains unknown, but its composition was recorded in two distinct layers: a heavy clay at the base, overlain by organic material containing small stone inclusions. That sequence of fills is consistent with a ditch that silted gradually over time, accumulating organic matter as the enclosure fell into disuse. The Magillycuddy's Reeks are visible on the horizon from this slope, which may say something about why someone chose this particular ground, though the site's full character remains largely unread.