The surrounding field fences have been removed, which means it now sits exposed, without the framing of hedgerows or boundaries that tend to give such monuments a sense of enclosure. Yet the earthwork itself persists, its interior raised and saucer-shaped, choked with ferns and thistles, and its bank still holding a measurable presence on its southern and west-northwest arc.

A ringfort, or rath, is a roughly circular enclosure defined by one or more earthen banks, typically dating from the early medieval period in Ireland, between roughly the fifth and twelfth centuries. They functioned as farmsteads, the bank and its accompanying ditch providing a degree of protection for a family, their livestock, and their dwellings within. The example at Poulleagh is modest in scale, about thirty metres in diameter, enclosed by a single earthen bank that stands 1.3 metres on the interior face and 1.5 metres on the exterior. Where the bank has been left to its own devices on the southern side, bushes have colonised it and helped preserve its height. Elsewhere it has eroded low. There is a break in the bank to the northwest, which likely marks the original entrance. What makes this particular fort worth a closer look is a small platform in the southwest quadrant, roughly three metres long and forty centimetres high, projecting about a metre inward from the bank wall. Such features are sometimes interpreted as raised areas associated with domestic use within the enclosure, though their precise function varies from site to site.