That asymmetry is what makes this particular site worth a second look. Most ringforts rely on a continuous raised bank all the way around; here, the enclosure is completed on the eastern arc by a scarped edge, meaning the ground simply drops away sharply, doing the work that earth and effort would otherwise have done.

Ringforts, known in Irish as raths, were the most common form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, typically dating from roughly the fifth to the twelfth centuries. They served as enclosed farmsteads, the bank and ditch forming a boundary that kept livestock in and wolves or raiders out. The Summerville example measures approximately 26 metres north to south and just under 25 metres east to west, placing it within the typical size range for a single-family enclosure. The earthen bank survives best at the north-west, where the external face still stands to around 1.35 metres, though it diminishes considerably towards the north, dropping to just 0.15 metres externally. The scarped edge, which substitutes for the bank along the eastern portion, is most pronounced at the east-south-east, reaching 1.85 metres in height and 5.5 metres in width, before it too reduces towards the south. A dry-stone field wall, almost certainly of much later agricultural origin, runs tangentially along the outside of the western arc, about five metres clear of it. The interior, now under pasture, dips gently towards the centre, a subtle bowl effect that is common in raths and may reflect the gradual settling of disturbed ground over many centuries. The site was recorded by Denis Power and uploaded to the national record in August 2011.

The rath sits in working farmland, so access depends on the landowner's permission, and the earthworks themselves are easiest to read in low winter light or after a frost, when shadows pick out the slight changes in ground level that the eye would otherwise skip over. The scarp on the eastern side is the most legible feature; standing at the ESE and looking back across the interior gives the clearest sense of how the original enclosure would have felt from within. The later field wall to the west is worth noting as a reminder of how thoroughly subsequent farming has reorganised the landscape around, and occasionally across, these older boundaries.