The old Irish maps record it as Cathair na Caillighe, which translates roughly as the fort of the hag or old woman, a designation that hints at the kind of folklore that once gathered around such places, even if the stories themselves have largely been lost.

A rath is an early medieval enclosure, typically dating from roughly the fifth to the twelfth century, formed by a raised earthen bank and sometimes an external ditch, used as a farmstead or a place of some local importance. This particular example, sitting about 180 metres south of the townland boundary with Mortlestown, measures approximately 32 metres in diameter. The 1897 edition of the Ordnance Survey 25-inch map shows it as a raised, circular area enclosed by a bank running from south through north to east, with part of that bank absorbed into a later field boundary. The southeastern portion has been cut across by a field boundary running northeast to southwest, a common fate for earthworks that survived long enough to become useful markers in an agricultural landscape. A second enclosure has been recorded roughly 195 metres to the northeast, suggesting this corner of Limerick held enough significance at some point to warrant more than one such structure in close proximity.

The site sits in open pasture and, as is often the case with raths that have not been excavated or fenced off for protection, it is most legible from above. Satellite imagery shows the circular form clearly, defined now largely by the ring of trees that has grown along what remains of the bank, a vegetation signature that frequently betrays these earthworks even where the ground itself has been disturbed. Anyone approaching on foot should look for that characteristic circular treeline in an otherwise open field. The name Cathair na Caillighe is worth carrying with you when you go; such place-name annotations on the older Ordnance Survey editions are often the last surviving thread connecting a physical feature to the oral world that once explained it.