A circular earthwork roughly 35 metres in diameter sits atop the rise, its outline so subtle that it reads on the ground as little more than a gentle swell in the grass. Only when examined through LiDAR imagery, a remote-sensing technique that uses laser pulses to map micro-variations in terrain, does the true shape of the thing snap into focus: a rath, or earthen ringfort, defined by a low enclosing bank and the characteristic round form that once marked out a farmstead or place of local significance in early medieval Ireland.

Ringforts of this kind were built in their thousands across Ireland, most dating broadly to the period between the sixth and tenth centuries, and they served as enclosed homesteads for farming families of varying status. This particular example at Scarnageeragh is a slight one, its bank much reduced by centuries of agricultural activity. A field boundary running roughly east to west cuts across the southern part of the enclosure, overlying the earlier earthwork and illustrating in a small way how later land management gradually erased or obscured features like this across the Irish countryside. The site was first brought to attention by a local observer, Enda Fields, and the LiDAR data that confirmed its presence dates from 2018.