Ringforts, or raths, are enclosed circular settlements built primarily during the early medieval period in Ireland, typically protected by a single bank and ditch. This one is considerably more elaborate than most, and the strange internal geometry sets it apart further still.

The enclosure measures roughly 28 metres north-north-west to south-south-east and 30 metres east-north-east to west-south-west, and is defended not by one earthen bank but by three concentric ones, each separated by a fosse, which is the term for the ditch cut to supply the material for the bank above it. The outermost bank stands around 1.4 metres above the surrounding ground on its exterior face; the innermost rises to an impressive 4.5 metres on its outer side. That level of defence, with three banks and two intervening ditches, places this firmly in the category of a multivallate ringfort, a form generally associated with high-status occupants. The interior, which is clear of the dense thorn, gorse, and tree cover that smothers the banks themselves, is divided into four quadrants by a level cruciform area roughly three metres wide, with a sub-triangular depression sitting in each quarter. Archaeologist Brian Hodkinson has suggested the feature may be a pillow mound, a type of artificial earthwork constructed to encourage rabbit burrowing and associated with managed medieval or early modern warrens.

The fort sits at the south-east end of the same hilltop occupied at its opposite end by the remains of Shanid Castle, which makes for an unusual pairing on a single elevated site. Access requires crossing rough pasture, and the enclosing banks are so thickly overgrown as to be difficult to trace precisely on the ground. The entrance, roughly four metres wide, faces east. An aerial photograph taken in 1985 gives a clearer sense of the fort's layout in relation to the castle and its associated motte and bailey than anything visible from ground level.