What survives of this subcircular rath measures roughly 45 metres east to west, but the phrase "survives" requires some qualification: a field bank cuts across the monument at its south and southeast, and no surface trace remains beyond that boundary. Quarrying has bitten into the enclosing elements at the northeast. What was once a defined earthwork is now a fragmented set of clues.

Raths, sometimes called ringforts, are among the most common archaeological monument types in Ireland, with tens of thousands recorded across the country. They were typically built during the early medieval period, between roughly the fifth and twelfth centuries, and served as enclosed farmsteads for individual families or small communities. The enclosure at Quaybaun follows the basic form: two banks with an intervening fosse, which is a ditch dug between the banks, creating a layered defensive or boundary effect. At most points around the circuit, however, the inner bank has been reduced to a scarp, a simple slope in the ground rather than a raised earthwork, and only at the southwest does anything resembling a true bank remain. Perhaps the most intriguing element here is the probable souterrain recorded in the interior. A souterrain is an underground stone-lined passage or chamber, associated with early medieval settlements and thought to have served for storage, refuge, or both. Its presence hints that whoever enclosed this hillside slope intended to stay, and to keep something safe.