It is, in fact, a rath, the more common name for a ringfort, which was a type of enclosed farmstead built and occupied throughout early medieval Ireland, roughly between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Thousands survive across the country in varying states of preservation, and this one, though modest, retains its essential form.

The site measures roughly 38 metres north to south and 49 metres east to west, giving it a slightly elongated oval plan. It is enclosed by an earthen bank, still standing to an external height of around 2.1 metres despite heavy vegetation cover, and a shallow fosse, or ditch, runs around the outside, now reduced to about 0.2 metres in depth. A possible entrance may be traced in the northeast. The site lies approximately 380 metres west of another ringfort in the same area, a reminder that these enclosures were not isolated curiosities but elements of a wider, densely settled early medieval landscape. The local area around Ballinrobe, Lough Mask, and Lough Carra is particularly well documented in this regard, with an archaeological survey compiled by D. Lavelle in 1994 cataloguing numerous such sites across the district.