What looks at first like a natural undulation is in fact a sub-circular raised area, roughly 26 metres north to south and 29 metres east to west, its edges defined by a scarp, the sloping face of the earthwork, reinforced with dry stone walling. This is a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, the most common monument type in the Irish countryside. Ringforts were enclosed farmsteads, built predominantly during the early medieval period, where a family and their livestock would have lived within a defined boundary of earth and stone.

The interior of this particular example has not been entirely passive over the centuries. Traces of cultivation ridges, the parallel raised strips of soil associated with spade or plough tillage, run north to south across the enclosed ground, suggesting the space was turned over to agriculture at some point, whether during the monument's original period of use or later. More intriguing still is an oval-shaped depression in the north-west quadrant, which may represent the remains of a house site. Depressions of this kind sometimes indicate where a structure once stood and gradually subsided into the ground as its materials decayed. The monument retains good views of the surrounding Westmeath countryside, a characteristic that was rarely accidental; control of sightlines mattered to the communities who built these enclosures.