To a casual eye it looks like little more than an uneven bank, but that low earthwork, still standing roughly 1.2 metres high along its north-western to south-western arc, is what remains of a rath, the Irish term for a roughly circular ringfort enclosed by an earthen bank and ditch. These structures were the farmsteads of early medieval Ireland, typically dating from somewhere between the fifth and twelfth centuries, and thousands of them survive across the country in varying states of preservation. This one at Scobaun is among the more quietly eroded examples.

The original enclosure measured approximately 29 metres across on its north to south axis, which places it in the middling range for a site of this type; large enough to have housed a farming family of some standing, but not the kind of substantial multi-banked enclosure associated with higher-status occupants. The site sits on a west-facing slope amid hilly ground broken by rock outcrop, and the interior of the fort is uneven, sloping downward toward the west. Beneath or beside that interior, there may be something considerably more interesting: a possible souterrain, the term for an underground stone-lined passage or chamber commonly found in association with ringforts. Souterrains served various purposes, from food storage to refuge, and their presence can significantly complicate and enrich the archaeology of an otherwise straightforward earthwork site. Whether the one at Scobaun is genuine remains unconfirmed, but the possibility alone makes this patch of West Cork pasture worth a second look.