Two gaps exist in its structure, one a low slumped break about three metres wide on the east side, the other a narrower gap at the southeast, but nobody can say with certainty which, if either, was the original entrance. That ambiguity is part of what makes the site quietly compelling.

A rath is an early medieval ringfort, typically a circular enclosure defined by earthen banks and ditches, understood to have served as a farmstead for a family of some local standing. This example at Rathkip follows the general pattern closely. The raised interior platform measures roughly thirty metres in diameter and is defined by a scarp, a steep slope cut into the ground, which reaches about two metres in height on the south side. Beyond that scarp lies a fosse, a defensive ditch between two and nearly three metres wide, and beyond that again an external bank still standing to over a metre in height on the south. The fosse remains well defined all the way around the full circuit, which is relatively uncommon; many ringforts have lost much of their definition to centuries of ploughing and field clearance. Here, the external bank along the southeast to north arc has actually been pressed into continued use as a field boundary, which may explain why it has survived so well in that section, even as the northeast to southeast stretch has been levelled. A second possible rath sits approximately seventy metres to the southwest, suggesting this ridge may once have supported more than one such enclosed settlement in the early medieval period.

The interior today is dense with brambles, and the perimeter has grown over with ash and hawthorn, giving the whole enclosure a closed, slightly overgrown quality. The ridge setting means the surrounding landscape opens up in several directions, which would have made obvious sense to whoever chose this spot originally.