This is a rath, the commonest type of early medieval Irish settlement enclosure, typically formed by a circular or subcircular bank and ditch that once enclosed a farmstead and its ancillary buildings. Most were built between roughly the fifth and twelfth centuries, and tens of thousands once dotted the Irish countryside. This particular example is well-preserved, measuring approximately twenty-five metres east to west and just over twenty metres north to south, its defining bank still legible despite the centuries.

The site was noted by Killanin in 1954, and the description that survives gives a fairly precise picture of what remains. The rath is subcircular rather than perfectly round, which is not unusual; the shape tended to follow the contours of whatever ground the builder had to work with. A modern field bank runs just outside the original enclosure bank at the south-east, a reminder that later agricultural activity has overlapped with the earlier archaeology without entirely obscuring it. Inside the enclosure, a rectangular depression in the north-east portion, around six metres in length, is considered modern in origin, suggesting that the interior has seen some disturbance, though the enclosure itself remains coherent. The hilltop position is typical of many raths, offering both visibility and a degree of natural advantage for a farming family wishing to keep watch over their land and livestock.

The bay visible from the hill is Streamstown Bay, a narrow inlet on the Connemara coast, and the combination of elevated ground and coastal outlook would have made this a practical as well as a commanding spot in early medieval life. The rath sits in a landscape that still carries considerable archaeological depth, though the enclosure itself, modest in scale and unmarked by any formal signage, is the kind of feature that rewards those who know what the slight rise and curve of a grassy bank actually means.