This is a rath, the most common type of ringfort found across Ireland, a form of enclosed farmstead built predominantly during the early medieval period. The enclosure here measures approximately 37 metres north to south and 36 metres east to west, defined by an earthen bank rising to about a metre in height, with a shallow external fosse, or ditch, surviving along the northern to south-western arc. In its original form, a rath like this would have enclosed a family's dwelling and outbuildings, the bank and ditch serving as much to mark ownership and status as to provide any serious defence.

The site sits within what was historically the Ballinrobe district, a landscape that also takes in the shores of Lough Mask and Lough Carra to the west. An archaeological survey of that broader area, compiled by D. Lavelle for the Lough Mask and Lough Carra Tourist Development Association in 1994, recorded this rath as entry number 218, noting even then that it was heavily overgrown. That overgrowth is itself a kind of preservation; undisturbed vegetation tends to protect the underlying earthworks from erosion and damage. The fosse, though shallow at around 0.4 metres deep, remains detectable, and the bank retains enough profile to give a clear sense of the original enclosure's shape and scale.