The bank is barely a foot high on its interior face, and its outer edge rises to little more than a metre; the whole thing measures roughly forty metres across. Yet this modest ring in the pasture is the remains of a rath, an early medieval farmstead enclosure, built and occupied perhaps a thousand years ago or more.

Raths, sometimes called ringforts, were the most common form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically constructed between the sixth and tenth centuries. They consisted of a raised circular bank, sometimes topped with a wooden palisade, enclosing a family farmstead and its outbuildings. This example in Raruddy sits on a gentle rise in undulating pastureland, a position that would have given its original inhabitants a modest vantage over the surrounding ground. The defining bank is visible all the way around, though time and agricultural activity have worn it considerably. What distinguishes the site further is the presence of an associated souterrain, an underground stone-lined passage or chamber that was typically used for storage, and occasionally for refuge. Souterrains are frequently found in connection with ringforts across Ireland, though their precise functions likely varied from place to place.