Yet that modest earthwork, roughly 35 metres across, is the footprint of a ringfort, the most common type of early medieval settlement in Ireland. Ringforts, sometimes called raths, were typically enclosed farmsteads, their inhabitants protected by a raised bank and ditch combination. Here, the bank has all but vanished, though an arcing stretch of earthen field boundary running from the north-west around to the north-east may preserve its last remnant, incorporated into the later agricultural landscape rather than destroyed by it.

The site was already recorded on the Ordnance Survey six-inch map of 1841, depicted as a roughly circular enclosure, which means it survived long enough into the modern era to be formally noted before further degradation set in. Archaeological test-trenching recorded by Shanahan in 2008 turned up two pits approximately 40 metres to the west of the monument. The larger measured 1.2 metres east to west and 0.74 metres north to south; the smaller, 0.6 by 0.4 metres, sat 6.5 metres away. Both had vertical sides, slightly rounded bases, and a single fill of dark-grey sandy silt carrying charcoal flecks along with burnt and vitrified stone. Vitrified stone is material that has been subjected to intense heat until its surface begins to fuse or glaze, a characteristic sometimes associated with craft activity or cooking processes. Given their proximity, these pits are considered likely contemporary with the ringfort itself. Just 110 metres to the west lies St James's Well, a holy well that may hint at a longer sacred or communal dimension to the immediate landscape.

The monument sits in gently undulating pasture, and its most legible form today is from above rather than ground level; aerial photography from Google Earth and Digital Globe imagery taken between 2009 and 2013 shows the circular earthwork clearly as a cropmark or slight raised platform. Visitors approaching on foot will need to read the ground carefully, looking for the dip of the ditch and the subtle elevation of the central platform. The proximity of St James's Well makes a combined visit worth considering, the well lying a short distance to the west across the same agricultural ground.