What remains is a rath, the Irish term for a ringfort, a type of enclosed farmstead built predominantly during the early medieval period, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Thousands of these monuments survive across Ireland, but each one rewards close reading, and this example at Rathlevanagh is no exception.

The enclosure measures approximately 33 metres north to south and 30 metres east to west, and was originally defined by two earthen banks with a fosse between them, a fosse being a ditch dug to provide both drainage and defensive depth. A slight outer fosse adds a further, more modest ring beyond the main earthworks. The inner bank has suffered considerably over time and is now reduced in places to little more than a scarp, a low sloping edge, particularly along the north-east to south-south-east arc. The inner fosse itself is wide and shallow, though it appears to have been deliberately steepened at certain points, suggesting some attention to its defensive character. The outer bank and the inner fosse are both best preserved along the east-south-east to west-south-west stretch. At the eastern side, an entrance gap of just under a metre wide survives in the inner bank, paired with a low causeway crossing the fosse, 3.5 metres wide and roughly 40 centimetres high, just enough to allow passage into the gently sloping interior.