What gives it away is the geometry: a roughly circular enclosure about 26 metres across, defined by two concentric banks with a shallow ditch running between them. This type of monument, known as a rath or ringfort, was the dominant form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically dating from roughly the fifth to the twelfth centuries. Most were farmsteads, housing a single family and their livestock within a banked enclosure that signalled social status as much as it offered protection. The double-banked variety, like this one at Skahard, was generally associated with higher-status occupants than the more common single-bank form.

The monument was recorded and compiled by Denis Power, with survey notes uploaded in June 2013. According to that record, the internal bank is constructed of earth and stone and stands between 0.1 and 0.7 metres on its inner face, rising to between 1.25 and 1.4 metres on its outer face. Between the two banks lies a fosse, which is the term for the ditch dug to provide material for the banks and to add a further obstacle to entry. This fosse, between 1.3 and 1.7 metres wide and around half a metre deep, is most clearly visible from the eastern arc around to the south and then from the south-west up to the north-west. The outer bank, lower and broader at roughly 2.4 metres wide, survives best in the south and south-west quadrants. The site sits on well-drained, rolling pasture with open views in all directions, the kind of elevated position early medieval farmers consistently chose for these enclosures.

The interior of the enclosure slopes gently down toward the south-east and shows considerable disturbance from cattle, whose persistent grazing and trampling, a process surveyors call poaching, has worn the surface uneven and contributed to the erosion of the banks. Vegetation has compounded this over time. Visiting in late winter or early spring, when grass growth is low, gives the clearest read of the earthworks. The concentric arrangement of banks is most legible when approached from the south or south-west, where the outer bank is still reasonably distinct. The site sits within working farmland, so access would require the landowner's permission, and visitors should expect to find the monument in agricultural use rather than preserved as a formal heritage site.