The result is a ringfort cut into equal halves by a wire and post line, which gives the whole site an oddly schizophrenic quality: an early medieval settlement interrupted by centuries of agricultural rearrangement, yet still legible in the ground.

Ringforts, known in Irish as raths, were the typical enclosed homesteads of early medieval Ireland, roughly the fifth to twelfth centuries, built to shelter a farming family and their livestock within a raised earthen bank. The example at Tinnakilla in Co. Limerick sits on an east-facing slope and measures approximately 23.3 metres east to west and 21.1 metres north to south, making it a fairly typical example in terms of scale. What defines it on the ground is a scarped edge, meaning a deliberate cut into the slope to create a low but distinct boundary. That scarping is relatively subtle on the northwest side, rising only around 0.4 metres with a width of about one metre, but considerably more pronounced on the southwest, where it reaches 1.2 metres in height and spreads to roughly four metres in width. The interior slopes gently downward to the east, following the natural gradient of the hillside, and the whole area is currently under pasture. The site was recorded by Denis Power and uploaded to the national record in August 2011.

Because the earthworks here are low and the land is actively farmed, this is a site that rewards patience and a decent pair of boots rather than any expectation of dramatic scenery. The scarped southwest edge is the most visible feature from ground level and is best appreciated by walking along it slowly, looking for the change in slope underfoot. The field boundary bisecting the interior cuts across any clear sense of the original enclosed space, so it helps to have consulted the survey measurements beforehand to mentally reconstruct the full circle. Access would depend on landowner permission, as it sits within working farmland.